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Lilac-breasted Roller - Tanzania

D

Don Cohen

Guest
I enjoyed a spectacular trip to Tanzania this past fall - incredible variety of wildlife!

I have seen photos of the Lilac-breasted Roller taken by photographers in Africa, and one of my hopes was to see and shoot this little beauty. We were fortunate, and had several opportunities to try our luck with them.

For the shot below, it was relatively early in the day, the sun was to our back, and the bird was posing nicely for us. Without warning, it took off, and I quickly snapped a few frames before it disappeared. This was the result - definitely one of my favorite shots from the trip.

Lilac-breasted Roller​

1D4_00469.jpg


Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 600L/f4 IS with 1.4x II Teleconverter
ISO 320, 1/1250 second, f/5.6​
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don Cohen said:
I enjoyed a spectacular trip to Tanzania this past fall - incredible variety of wildlife!

I have seen photos of the Lilac-breasted Roller taken by photographers in Africa, and one of my hopes was to see and shoot this little beauty. We were fortunate, and had several opportunities to try our luck with them.

For the shot below, it was relatively early in the day, the sun was to our back, and the bird was posing nicely for us. Without warning, it took off, and I quickly snapped a few frames before it disappeared. This was the result - definitely one of my favorite shots from the trip.

Lilac-breasted Roller​

1D4_00469.jpg


Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 600L/f4 IS with 1.4x II Teleconverter
ISO 320, 1/1250 second, f/5.6​
Click to expand...


Stunning and beautiful! so where are the pictures of it posing nicely for you too?

Asher
 
D

Don Cohen

Guest
Thanks Asher. I posted only the one, to keep with the original forum recommendation, to focus discussion on a single image, rather than posting a bunch that might make discussion more difficult.

But in any case, here you go:

Lilac-breasted Roller Posing​

1D4_00468.jpg


Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 600L/f4 IS, with 2x II Teleconverter
ISO 400, 1/800 second, f/8​
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don Cohen said:
I enjoyed a spectacular trip to Tanzania this past fall - incredible variety of wildlife!

I have seen photos of the Lilac-breasted Roller taken by photographers in Africa, and one of my hopes was to see and shoot this little beauty. We were fortunate, and had several opportunities to try our luck with them.

For the shot below, it was relatively early in the day, the sun was to our back, and the bird was posing nicely for us. Without warning, it took off, and I quickly snapped a few frames before it disappeared. This was the result - definitely one of my favorite shots from the trip.
Click to expand...

Lilac-breasted Roller​

1D4_00469.jpg


Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 600L/f4 IS with 1.4x II Teleconverter
ISO 320, 1/1250 second, f/5.6​


Don,

Thanks for giving us the before as well as the perfect shot above. I know that the moment the bird takes off is the hardest to catch as one has to be so alert. Even then, both the lens and the camera have to be responsive enough to get such a shot. Technique and speed of the camera focus is critical here. The 5DII and I can't do this so easily! Were you already in tracking mode and shooting when the Roller took off?

Presumably, this was not hand-held or was it? Also how big was the bird in the frame?

Asher
 
D

Don Cohen

Guest
Asher,

I have my camera configured so that AutoFocus is controlled using the * button on the back, with my thumb. It will continually AutoFocus as long as my thumb is pressed down, and stops when I remove it. This gives me immediate access to both "AI Servo" and "One Shot" Autofocus modes, just using my thumb, and without having to change any settings. Takes some getting used to when you first start with it, but is much more versatile, in my opinion.

I ordinarily shoot with the very large 600L on a Tripod, but that was not practical working in the safari landcruiser vehicles. The top of these pop up, and we stand up to shoot, resting our cameras/lenses on beanbags on the top edge. Definitely not as easy to do flight shots, or follow any animal in motion, as a gimbled mount on a secure tripod.

You may notice I had the 2x on for the posing shot - this one represents probably a moderate crop of the original - perhaps representing 60% or so of the original raw image.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don,

I hope you managed to buy your 600mm lens some time ago. I'm astonished that it's almost $13,000. well one does get $0.001 change and free shipping right now! I thought these went for about half that! nicolas claris used to hand hold his in a chase boat driven by whoever he hired that day to chase the multi-million dollar yacht he'd be photographing. Now he works with the Pentax and I am not sure whether or not he has kept the 600 mm lens!

Asher
 
D

Don Cohen

Guest
Thanks for the kind words, Robert!

Asher,

Yes, I had purchased this lens back around 2002 or so, and it was significantly less than the crazy prices they're now asking. Canon has come out with newer versions of several of the lenses I'm using (600L/f4, 70-200L/f2.8 IS) and the jump in prices is typically at least 50% if not more. I would have considered upgrading, but this price inflation is just ridiculous, and I suspect way out of proportion to whatever incremental improvement in performance they might provide.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don Cohen said:
Thanks for the kind words, Robert!

Asher,

Yes, I had purchased this lens back around 2002 or so, and it was significantly less than the crazy prices they're now asking. Canon has come out with newer versions of several of the lenses I'm using (600L/f4, 70-200L/f2.8 IS) and the jump in prices is typically at least 50% if not more. I would have considered upgrading, but this price inflation is just ridiculous, and I suspect way out of proportion to whatever incremental improvement in performance they might provide.
Click to expand...

Don,

Canon is actually doing a favor to lens owners. They are really acting like fine art dealers who sell limited editions of prints; the price rises with each sale! That way, early buyers can be shown to have invested well. Canon lens ownership is then vested with a kind of longevity warranty. There's often no to little loss in buying a Canon lens even for rare use as it will, likely as not, increase in value. So Canon can claim that the cost of ownership is really very modest. It is just holding your money for you in the meanwhile, LOL!

Asher
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Lilac-breasted Roller Posing​

1D4_00468.jpg

Don,

The way the impressively colored wingspan is folded on itself can be recognized because of the difference in coloring of the dorsal aspect of the forewing. It covers the bird like a brown leaf! It mist be magnificent to see the bird transform revealing it's majestic painted wings.

There's no way one could experience this in B&W. Thanks for adding this wonderful picture!

Asher
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It's interesting to muse that these beautiful birds are the survivors of dinosaurs that dominated the planet for some 300 million years! All the pictures show them as drab olive green! Perhaps they were also multicolored like this bird! I wonder what work has been done on the genes to know how long these colors have been shown off like you have here, don!

Asher
 
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