Finally got a good one

[Widowmaker]

Thats a nice shot. How far would you estimate you were from the subject? I'm looking into getting a flash for the 300D and was wondering what kind of distance I could expect.

[eric s]

I was really close to this bird. About 10 feet or so. Maybe a little less. I was surprised how short the reach is of a flash (I'm quite ignorant of flash usage and technology.)

If you have to, you can get a Better Beamer which extends the distance a flash reaches. If you do a google search on it you'll find several reviews.

Eric

[checklg]

Eric,

That is a lovely shot.

p.s. Sorry to hear about the knee.

[slipe]

Originally Posted by eric s

Does anyone find the picture a little flat? Maybe it's the nature of the features... so smooth to the bird. But something seems just a bit wrong with the picture. I was blaming the use of flash, but maybe I shouldn't?

I don’t think the flatness has anything to do with the bird or flash. A 400mm shot flattens a subject just like a fisheye makes someone’s nose look long. It looks like a good 400mm photo to me.

Nice picture. They are interesting birds. National Geographic did a spread on Sea World about 20 years ago and they had a special section on a green heron that hung around. It would swipe fish pellets from Sea World and take them to a nearby stream. It would put the pellet in the water as bait and wait for a fish to come to it so it could spike it. If a fish didn’t come for a while it would pick up the pellet and take it somewhere else to try again. They said it was the first known instance of an animal using a human made tool.