08 July 2012

Piwakawaka (fantail)


A little piwakawaka has been hanging around the verandah lately. I took a break from working at the kitchen table a few days ago to try to photograph the little mite. Here's one of the results. You'll probably have to put up with a few more over the next week.



[6 July 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 400, 1/250 at f8]


All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

13 comments:

  1. Pete, that's about as good of a bird shot as I've ever seen. Very well done.
    TK

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  2. Awesome shot of an adorable little sweetie ;0 I think I can suffer through more photos of this little one!

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  3. Now, that's comedy gold.

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  4. A beautiful shot. Love those dark eyes and white eyebrows.

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  5. What a delightful photo! Made me smile big:-). I look forward to seeing more shots of him! Those fantails are such inquisitive little birds. -Maureen

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  6. Tim, thank you :^) Even as I write this reply, the little one's out there performing. I like to think this conveys something of the personality of piwakawaka.

    Thank you, Barbara. This is probably the best of the in-flight photographs, but I'll post one or two more with a different feel.

    Zhoen, these little birds always make me smile. Sometimes they make me laugh out loud.

    Robin, depending on what angle you see them from, they can look anything from fierce to grumpy to smug to hilarious. Hard not to attribute human emotions to them.

    Maureen, glad it made you smile. I love having them around, and lately I've been blessed. Actually, the verandah railing's getting a good 'blessing' ;^)

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  7. Thanks Lisa. I'm guessing the girls will appreciate this one :^)

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  8. Bring them on, Pete! I smiled, too, when I first saw that intent expression and I keep on smiling. I love the white fly-away "eyebrows". Great focus and use of depth of field.

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  9. Fantastic shot Pete.

    They are tricky little buggers to photograph as they never seem to stop moving. I had one eating sandlfies off my trousers at a hut once.

    Your new Lumix seems to be a very versatile camera.

    I've been meaning to catch up with you to see if you would be up for a winter Ruahine tramp sometime?

    Cheers

    Jono

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  10. Lesley, I thought you'd like this. The eyebrows can make them look quite ferocious sometimes — the Little My of the bird world, perhaps?

    Jono, thanks, and congratulations on your success in the NZAC comp. The website doesn't do justice to the photographs (have a look at Mark Watson's superb kea photograph on his blog and you'll see what I mean) but I could see enough to know yours is a wonderful photograph.

    The GH1 has its flaws (the substandard autofocus counts it out as a serious bird photography camera, and the viewfinder's awful) but it's a superb all-round camera for travelling. Things are changing at a phenomenal rate, though. Canon's rumoured to be bringing out a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera very soon, so that will be interesting; sadly, I can't see them joining Panasonic and Olympus with the micro 4/3 format.

    Yep, I'd be keen on a tramp. Can't be for a couple of weeks yet, though. Did you hear DOC's taken out the mid Pohangina swingbridge?

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  11. How in the world did you get the sharp focus on the eyes just right? Incredible skill to get this shot. Beautiful.

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  12. Miguel — Luck and the knowledge that pressing the shutter button wasn't costing me anything! To give myself a little credit, though, I had been watching it for a while so I knew what to expect; it wasn't just random photographing ;^)

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Constructive criticism is welcomed (I particularly appreciate thoughts on what you like and don't like), but please keep it courteous.