I have always tried to get better and better at photography, across a broad range of subjects such as macro, telephoto, low light, flash, studio etc etc, and I reckon i'm at 70% of where I would like to be by year end...I have watched with interest as a couple of friends - Paul and Mike - have invested in time and equipment, and are now shooting brilliant images that I am often jealous of. So, thank you for inspiring me to get better and the next couple of days are dedicated to you.... (Adam, your time will come).
Firstly, a lovely common bird - The male Daurian Redstart (the female is sexually dimorphic, like many birds and is a dull brown).
This one shot at 1/1000 f7.1, ISO 1600
I had to trade off the already high ISO against the depth of field, as his wings are still blurred mainly due to the limited focus - but, as the image below shows, it gives a really crisp image when blown up: (bearing in mind the limitations of small jpegs at 72DPI on a computer).
Here he is perched close by
and a more abstract shot:
