Had to toss in this shot as its probably my “sharpest” shot yet…. when you finally really nail a shot its amazing the detail you can see….. this bird was over 20 feet away when I shot it right in the back…. its a Male Purple finch and it was snowing lightly.. you can even see some sitting on his head.. and a couple of flakes streaking by….. (also yesterday I had the honor of finishing both 5 and 6 th in a contest where I had entered twice!)….
RiverEyes,
This photo and the ones in the next post are absolutely incredible. That is definitely a unique talent to be able to frame a photo so perfectly. Keep it up!!!
I love the photos too, the one you posted of the moon a while back is my current desktop background. Unless I replace it with this bird.
thanks Big Northern… I guess when I said THIS is my sharpest.. I should give it the caveat that its my sharpest of wildlife.. the moon was easier.. its bright, it dont move… I have plenty of time to set up the shot… as an added bit of information… you can tell how sharp your photo is by how it looks at full 100% optical crop… heres the 100% crop of this finch.. if you retain good detail at 100% then its a good shot… this is about as good as it gets (in my experience anyway!)…
What a picture!!! 
Ryan Hale
I’m speechless……………..absolutely speechless! 
that is one of the most bueatifull pictures i have seen in a long time. I am getting tired of seeing the same birds in the same settings. absolutely an awsome shot. I would have that one professionaly matted and framed. i give it 2 thumbs up.
shane
What kind of camera are you shooting these pictures with? What size lens and arpeture range. Those are some awesome pics.
geee thanks for all the comments guys!….
Zamer.. my camera is the digital rebel by canon and the lens Im using for these shots is the Sigma 50-500, with the 1.6 cropping factor of the rebel it gives me an 800mm equivalent…. my rule of thumb is shooting at or above F8 for clarity…. depending on light… usually shooting ISO from 200-400.. though sometimes 800… the rebel can shoot 1600 but I find that too noisy for my taste… though some dont mind it….. heres the last shot I took for today.. nothing special.. just tinkering with settings to figure out how to get the best shots… this shot is similar in clarity to the purple finch above… it could be better, but not much….
beautiful
Very impressive, Ken. With that long of lens are you able to get your shots without a tripod?
Ken, can you tell me if your digital Rebel has a bulb setting on it? I was unable to find any info of this on my research of the Rebel. I enjoy taking pictures of lightning and fireworks and use the bulb setting to accomplish this. This is a picture I took a few years ago. It was a rare night were it never rained during the storm.
Included is one of a few pictures I took last year from a park that over looks Red Wing, Mn. on the Fourth of July.
Gator Hunter
Hi Zimmy…
nice shots zimmy!
geeee what do you know about that.. I did not even know what a bulb setting IS!… but I just read about it in my Rebel manual… so I can honestly say YES… it does do that!….
as for tripod shots.. well.. heres my rule of thumb on that.. to successfully handhold a big zoom like the 500 the estimate is you take the zoom MM number like say a full 500 like I often use.. and put a 1 over it… so you would have 1/500.. this is the shudder speed you need to take a sharp photo using handheld lens (some people can get buy with less if they have good technique!).. this can change of course if your lens is IS (image stabilized).. then you can cut that figure in half so Im told…. but then IS is meant to be used handheld!.. they are big bucks! I dont have one… so if I need to hand hold.. I lower the apperture, raise the ISO until I can get into the 1/500-1/800 range… (Im usually shooting in AV mode) that seems to do pretty fair hand held…. it all really depends on what you will accept for sharpness in your shots… most of my shots are NOT sharp enough for pros… (the above ones are pro standard so Im told, a pro wildlife guy told me that technically I nailed them, but I have something to learn about post work….)…
this below shot was handheld and the turkey was on the move.. I was shooting out the window and the truck was running…. I actually posted this in the upland game thread… because I was suprised to see when I got home that what I thought was a gobler was actually a bearded hen!! so I found that interesting.. otherwise this shot is pretty vanilla…. and its not very sharp.. but this bird was over 100 yards out and I actually used a digital zoom to bring it up this close so you can plainly see its a hen….
Hey Rivereyes, im very impressed with the clearity of the finch shots, even the suttle greys in the bill are clear. Very nice close up shot. That shot of the bearded hen at 100 yrds, your doing something right and have you got the magnafication you need! Very nice closeup at 100 yrds, your cameras reaching out and getting the colors.
so you would have 1/500.. this is the (shudder) speed you need to take a sharp photo using handheld lens (some people can get buy with less if they have good technique!).. this can change of course if your lens is IS (image stabilized).. then you can cut that figure in half so Im told…. but then IS is meant to be used handheld!.. they are big bucks!
Sorry Ken, I had to laugh at your spelling of (shudder) shutter speed j/k 
Thanks for ALL the info. I looked into a Canon with the image stabalizer. 
OUCH!
I’ve been into photography for a few years now. I know if I would have read your post back before I got into photography I would have said “WHAT did he just say?”
Now that I KNOW the Rebel has the bulb setting I know that it is a must. I know a couple professional race track photographer that had Nikon’s top digital camera last year and they paid around four times the amount of the Rebel. Their flash sync was 1/500 compared to the flash sync of the Rebel at 1/200. Which is very important when taking action shots after dark, but I think I can get by with the 1/200. Included is a picture I took at Cedar Lake Speedway last summer of Tony Stewart racing in the Late Model Feature.
well i will have to bow out of this contest. I know when i am out of my league. you guys take really nice photos. i enjoyed looking at what you shared with us, and please keep on snapping them nice photos.
shane
guess that finch shot was really exceptional… it won photo of the day in a pristigous contest….. this link goes to the one I entered, pretty much the same as the one here.. I just finished it a bit more… darkened and blurred some background elements……
http://www.digitalphotocontest.com/photodisplay.asp?photoid=586566&sf=1
Someone wrote me on this shot and wanted to use it for a digital photography class too….
Great Job, Ken. Quite the accomplishment there. 
That is a great pic. Do you have it enlarged and framed yet?
Congrats on the POD! I sure hope you’ll keep the photos coming. I look forward to them.
Thanks,
Steve
Aw Geeze. You guys got Zimmy started on the racing photos. This is what Zimmy does all summer. He hits all the tracks around and shoots the races. I’ve seen probably hundreds of his racing shots. He is very good at it.
Gator Hunter
Hey Ken………….you’re not going to get all high falootin’ and snotty on us when your rakin’ in the cake for your photographic genius are you? 
It’s been fun watching you progress along this journey! No doubt…………some good things are on the horizon if you keep after it!
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