Sundown
Sundown
Male Eurasian Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
Rutland Nature Reserve, November 2019.
Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6
f6.3, 1/40s, ISO 500, 380mm
Chaffinches are one of the most common UK small birds, but ones that don't visit my garden. So, I am always happy to have a chance to see them when I'm out and about and will always try and take a shot if an opportunity presents itself.
This one was a tricky task as sunset in mid-November in this part of the UK is 4:15pm, and it was already 4:30pm when I found the birds.
There was still a trickle of light left in the sky, cutting through the dense but almost bare trees as the birds prepared to roost.
I quickly realised I could either push the ISO to a point where the noise would really spoil the shot or attempt to shoot at a shutter speed well below the recommended 1/focal length for a long lense and ruin it with camera shake instead.
I shortened the lens to 380mm, braced myself against a tree as firmly as I could and wound the shutter speed down, watching the exposure needle creep towards the middle of the scale. Click...click...two shots and he was gone.
I looked at the exif data on the camera and saw 1/40s. I thought, that's probably the slowest shutter speed I have ever shot with this lens. And it was, until 10 seconds later when I got a lovely shot of a Dunnock at 1/30s.
You've gotta love image stabilisation!
There are a bunch of them in my garden. Them, green- and goldfinches.
Very nice photo again, thank you for sharing your process and stories with your pictures!
We get goldfinches but no chaffinches or greenfinches. I don't think there is enough woodland for them, mostly farmland, but there are a lot of teasles, which the goldfinches love for their seeds.
I would love to see any pictures you have of the greenfinches, they are such beautiful birds.
Glad you like it 😊
This is the only photo i have of any of the finches, luckily it's a green one:
My longest lens is an old manual Nikon AI 100mm (on a m43 camera) and it's too far away for when they're sitting in the tree really. They don't come to the feeder no more since i made it harder to reach for the parakeets. I am thinking about getting a longer lens though.
*sorry i have no better photo 😅
A nice brown looking finch.
I'll see if I can find one that is a better peach colour lol
What a charmer! Thanks for sharing as always 💛
You're very welcome.
Fantastic picture. Thanks for also talking about shutter speed. It's true that your keeper rate might go down with lower shutter speeds, but IMO it's better to try taking the photo with a slower shutter than not taking one at all.
Thank you 😊
It was about this time I bought my Nikon D850 which, for many reasons, has much superior noise control than the Nikon D7200 I took this with. However, image processing technology has moved on so much that I find myself less concerned with noise now than ever before. I think, if I was taking this shot today, I would probably shoot at ISO 2000 on the D850 to give me the extra shutter speed. What I really need is f/4 500mm 😁
It's certainly true that newer, especially FF, sensors allow you to push ISO much more than in the past. This makes it a lot easier to keep shutter speed up. I just wish that people didn't claim high shutter speeds are the cost of entry for these types of photos.
You hit the other nail in the head - fast glass makes a world of difference.