[sach.sri]

Of late it is becoming more and more difficult to restrain myself from heading out into the jungle with my new 100-400L lens.

The "bug" has well and truly bitten me

For some personal reasons - i have not been able to head out to Sariska in the recent weeks, so this weekend decided to take my lens and camera to Sultanpur and Okhla for some birding.

Contacted GD sir and he confirmed to me that we will be coming with me to Okhla bird sanctuary.

On Saturday he informed that a old friend of his from F'bad will also join us in our trip to Okhla, so it was all set - we were to leave Gurgaon by 6 am to reach the bird sanctuary by 6.30 am.

A little behind schedule i pulled up at GD sir's place and off we went, met with Prajesh (kpzen) at Mohan cooperative metro station and then proceeded towards the bird sanctuary.

We pulled up at the sanctuary about 7 ish. It was cold and windy and i was thankful that i was waering my jacket and a cap!

Okhla bird sanctuary has a big lake and a pucca road is constructed on the periphery of the lake where you can take your vehicle. This is what we did.

Though being late in the birding season most of the migratory birds had left - still we had a lot of ducks and some other birds - but more importantly - a good number of birding enthusiasts


GD sir was suitably awed and commented - "dilli mein to kaafi birding enthusiasts hain, hum to sochte the ki hum hi tees maar kha hain" (we thought that we are the only crazy guys, but delhi has a lof of birding enthusiasts).


We field tested our lenses - my 100-400L and GD sir's 300 f/4 +TC14E-II. One thing which i have noticed is that my lens does not focus very well on birds in flight - the pictures are mostly OOF, so either i dont know how to use it, or there is something wrong with the lens!

Anyways, following are some pics that i managed.

A moving platform in the lake - with a lot of ducks, including spotted-bill ducks.





A panoramic view with the high rises in the background







Northern shoveller male




Northern shoveller male and female




Are these sea gulls?

[sach.sri]

Northern Shoveler male potrait


Northern Shoveler male potrait


Northern shoveler female


Northern shoveler female


Northern shoveler female


Northern shoveler female - panorama


which duck is this?


Purple swamphen


Purple swamphen

[sach.sri]

spotted billed duck - reflection





Magpie robin




Do hanson ka joda - spotted billed duck duo









spotted billed duck potrait


purple swamphen duo





purple swamphen - bath




Spotted billed duck - launching into action sequence

[Coooolcat21]

Lovely pictures! I am sure none of us are looking for the most perfect photograph ,but more for the zest with which one travels to these places and takes the rest of us along through thier TLs.
The last picture of your 1st post are Brown Headed Sea Gulls and the 7th picture in your next post is a common teal.
Keep posting
Regards

[sach.sri]

Last set of pics - purple swaphen different poses









This ended our trip to Okhla bird sanctuary on the banks of river Yamuna, just after the barrage at Kalindi Kunj.

This sanctuary - though a very good and nice area is, i believe hampered by the DND running near it creating a lot of disturbance to the avian species.

I hope that you like looking at the pics - as such as i liked clicking them and share the excitment of watching such awesome beings.

Thanks.

Hopefully, we will keep on getting good number of birds in the sanctuary in the years to come also.

[sach.sri]

Masters in action - some candid shots that i clicked of GD sir and Prajesh



Very happy about the pic - just captured the wow shot.


Extreme closeup


Concentrating hard?

[gd1418]

Great pictures. The 100~400L is serving you well. Masters in action. Ho ho. We are no masters. Just pursuing seriously what is dear to our hearts. Masters are totally ina different league altogether.

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Great pictures. The 100~400L is serving you well. Masters in action. Ho ho. We are no masters. Just pursuing seriously what is dear to our hearts. Masters are totally ina different league altogether.

Thank you.

I think i just found out why my bird in flight pictures are OOF - i have IS mode set to 1 which is for stationary objects in Canon. I should switch it to 2 - which is for panning. I think this is the reason - hopefully, will be able to get better BIF pictures next time.

[Subrat Seet]

Superb. So many spot bill duck pictures. Delightful man. Enjoyed thoroughly.
Just one query: Do you oversharpen the pictures or cropped heavily? It looks like little more sharpen.

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Thank you.

I think i just found out why my bird in flight pictures are OOF - i have IS mode set to 1 which is for stationary objects in Canon. I should switch it to 2 - which is for panning. I think this is the reason - hopefully, will be able to get better BIF pictures next time.

Nice images Sach. Any reason for pano crops?
For BIF, IS mode doesn't matter. I have seen that IS 2 helps only while trying panning shots of automobiles.

Sorry for intruding your thread but I will post some sample BIF's I shot with IS off to give you an idea

Purple Heron,Comb Duck and Black Necked Stork (female)

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

Lovely pictures! I am sure none of us are looking for the most perfect photograph ,but more for the zest with which one travels to these places and takes the rest of us along through thier TLs.
The last picture of your 1st post are Brown Headed Sea Gulls and the 7th picture in your next post is a common teal.
Keep posting
Regards

Thanks Cooolcat - trying my best and learning in the process.

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Superb. So many spot bill duck pictures. Delightful man. Enjoyed thoroughly.
Just one query: Do you oversharpen the pictures or cropped heavily? It looks like little more sharpen.

Thanks Subrat. Even i love the spot bill ducks very much and this outing gave me a lot of good shots. I specially like the reflection shot and the shot with 2 of them together.

I dont sharpen (infact, i need to learn how to do it) - i just crop and adjust contrast where required - i guess, if i go a little liberal with adjusting contrast, the pics look sharpened, will keep this in mind.

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Nice images Sach. Any reason for pano crops?
For BIF, IS mode doesn't matter. I have seen that IS 2 helps only while trying panning shots of automobiles.

Sorry for intruding your thread but I will post some sample BIF's I shot with IS off to give you an idea

Purple Heron,Comb Duck and Black Necked Stork (female)

Thanks Robi. Pano crops - just for aesthetic reasons, i somehow like the composition more this way.

Your shots are a class apart - i just hope to reach that level some day. Super shot -- all the three BIFs. Specially the comb duck - like the water droplets that are captured together with the bird - gives some context to the picture.
Thanks for sharing. You are more than welcome to include your shots in the thread - just makes the thread more lively .

[blue_pulsar]

@sach.sri: Nice pictures. But I feel the focus is a little 'soft' on some pics.

@robimahanta: Amazing pics!!

[Subrat Seet]

@Robimahanta: Superb action captured. Liked the second image veru much and also the third one.

@ Sachin: Please shoot in RAW and do little bit of Post Processing. If you are a Canon users, do sharpen in Canon's Digital Photo Professional. If a Nikon user then it too have a software, where you can do PP.

Subrat

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

@Robimahanta: Superb action captured. Liked the second image veru much and also the third one.

@ Sachin: Please shoot in RAW and do little bit of Post Processing. If you are a Canon users, do sharpen in Canon's Digital Photo Professional. If a Nikon user then it too have a software, where you can do PP.

Subrat

Actually - i also want to do it, but i faced a couple of issues. Will give you a PM to discuss.

I have a canon - 7D and used a 100-400L USM IS lens for these pics.

[Subrat Seet]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Actually - i also want to do it, but i faced a couple of issues. Will give you a PM to discuss.

I have a canon - 7D and used a 100-400L USM IS lens for these pics.

Though not a big photographer but can help you in this. I too use the same gear.