The rain hasn’t stopped you guys from getting the cameras out: we received 26 super-awesome shots of birds in response to this week’s shooting challenge. From pink flamingos to camouflaged Tawny Frogmouths to pelicans to pigeons, there’s a little something for everyone. Don’t forget to click each image for the full-size version.
Jake Bamford
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Taken with a Sony Alpha a-350, 200mm, f5.6, 1/125th.
It was a rainy day and a few magpies were taking shelter under the cover of my back porch. The one in the photo was very confident and didn’t seem to mind people coming near it. I grabbed my camera and took this shot.
Matt Maher
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I took this photo at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary just north of Melbourne. It’s the first time I’ve been, and it was a fun experience. This fellow stands at the entrance grunting and glaring at everyone who comes into the park.
My girlfriend, the pro photographer, got better shots with her gear but I’m proud of this one. I used a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS (a slightly elderly bridge camera) ISO-200, shutter speed 1/100 sec.
The emu is now my desktop wallpaper and stares disapprovingly at me when I think about slacking off.
Travis Parry
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A bucket fish heads, a helper that’s willing to get smelly, a canon 550d, 50mm lens and auto mode.
Frank Courtney
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Canon 50d, 70-200 f4L @ 200mm, Shot at 1/250 f4 hand held. Shot as Jpg in camera and cropped only.
Arrived home from work, pulled into the driveway and found this young critter sheltering from the wind.
Grabbed the camera from the boot, took the first lens that came to hand, set to Program AE and hoped for the best!
Avon Perera
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Canon 600D
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 300mm
Lens: Canon EF-S 70-300mm USM IS
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/1250s
Location: Wilson’s Botanic Park in BerwickSo I headed to the Botanic Park to try and get something for this shooting challenge. I guess I found out that I have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting wildlife! It wasn’t a total loss though, since I managed to find a smiling duck (or goose – feel free to correct me)… all he needed was a little post processing in PS.
Pete Aitchison
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Canon 60D auto settings with a 300 – 500mm lens. Poor bird was steaming hot and this is him trying to cool down.
Stuart Keynes
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A female grass parrot I fond in some bush land behind my house in Adelaide. The males are very brightly coloured (sometimes called a red-rumped parrot I think) whereas the females are very hard to spot, as you can see. I like her curious look in this shot.
Nikon D5100 with Nikon 55-300mm zoom on aperture priority.
Tamara Visvanathan
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Nikon D7000 – 200mm, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 1000
Headed down to the Sculptures by the Sea at Cottelsoe Beach and noticed everyone looking up at a tree. Thinking that maybe it was one of the sculptures, looked up and noticed a baby Corella with it’s mother getting a good old preening!
Simon Lee
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Canon 550D, Tamron 18-270mm @270mm, f5.4, ISO 640, 1/400 sec
With all the torrential rain in Sydney this week, I was starting to wonder if I would even see a bird let alone photograph one.
I was resigned to shooting ducks when I remembered the “Pelicans of Narrabeen”.
There is a bridge across the Narrabeen Lakes which is often used by the local pelicans who roost on the slim, tall street lights that line the bridge.
Sure enough there was one at attention, bravely standing strong against the ominous storm squalls.
A short while after this shot was taken the pelican flew off and I didn’t see another one on the bridge for the rest of the week.
I realise I have broken nearly every photographic rule by leaving so much negative space as well as centering my subject, but I feel it was the best way to convey the isolation of the pelican amongst such a sinister and threatening sky.
Of course black and white was a natural choice (there was virtually no colour in the original shot) and I used Aperture with a little Photomatix magic to bring out the detail and drama in the rain clouds.
Erlyn Munroe
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Upon joining the Gizmodo Shooting Challenge for the first time last week, my bf and I thought it would be a good feature to add to our http://baconandegg.blog.com/ to do the shooting challenge weekly and say something about it on our blog.
I didn’t realize that taking a photo of a bird would be quite difficult! I was getting frustrated with the fact that I could hear all the birds around me but couldn’t see any – not one! Anyway, I finally got lucky with this lorikeet although I was a bit too far away even with my 250mm lens. I used our Canon EOS 600D with the exposure time set to 1/80 sec, 100 ISO and flash off. About 5 photos later, I finally got a good angle and thought I’d share with you all. Enjoy 🙂
Looking forward to the next challenge!
Nick Smith
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Camera: Pentax K200d
Lens: Sigma 70-300mm Zoom, set at 300mm
f/5.6
1/8 sec
ISO-100Birds. Nothing fancy here, hopped in the car and took the opportunity to revisit the local Territory Wildlife Park. This has a lovely lagoon with a bird hide. I spent a fruitless hour there watching the rain and 3 ducks in the middle.
The shot was actually taken in a large bird aviary that also forms part of the complex. It is a huge complex with treetop walks and viewing platforms. The birds were not cooperative, but I liked this shot. Sorry I cannot identify the bird.
Matt Holliday
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I was in St Kilda this weekend taking photos when I stopped at a cafe to get a coffee. This pigeon kept hanging around while I was drinking my coffee and I managed to get a decent shoot of him without scaring him off. I got home that night and saw that this week’s challenge was of birds so I thought this would be a cool shot to send in. It is shot with a Canon 60D, Kit lens at 55mm, f/5.6, ISO 100 and shutter speed was 1/320.
Martin Caulfield
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Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: f2.8 300mm
1/1600s
f/3.5This was taken on Sunday 4th March at Lake Parramatta. it is a little oasis in the middle of Sydney and an excellent place for landscape and/or bird photography
Connor Krohn
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Canon PowerShot SX200 IS
f/5.5
1/320 sec.
ISO-125
12x optical zoom at ~4m
Keperra, Brisbane
Chucked the camera in my bag as I went for a walk with the dog. Decided to check out a mountain trial as there had been a small bush fire earlier in the week. Saw this beautiful Rainbow Lorikeet and thought “omg i can finally enter a gizmodo shooting challenge.” So I snap a few pics on Auto (i’m a such a noob) and this was the best.
Simon Hunt
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Two is better than one. 🙂
I was looking around for a subject to shoot for this weeks challenge as I prefer to do wildlife shots. The weather hasn’t been that good so I thought that I was going to be out of luck. Whilst walking the dogs in the local park my luck changed and I spotted a couple of Tawny Frogmouths camouflaged in the tree. I headed off home to collect the required camera gear and was happy to find them still there when I returned near sunset. Luckily the tree was on a steep slope and I could get to a point close to eye level to use a 400mm lens to bring them in close.
I used a little bit of a fill flash to sort out a bit of the harsh contrast in the trees of the park.
The equipment was a Canon 7D, Canon 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L, Canon 550EX Flash all mounted on a monopod. The exposure was ISO 200, focal length 300mm, 1/180 at f5.6. Adjustments processed in Apple Aperture.
David Johnson
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OK I tried to shoot in the wild but had no luck with a 250mm lens.
So of to a reserve to shoot (Blackbutt reserve in Newcastle N.S.W. Australia )
I spotted this happening and thought I would have a shot of two birds on the feeder box…..
Instead the Honeyeater attacked the Frogmouth (by luck it was a Frogmouth,not by choice)
This was the best shot as it(the Honeyeater) swung on the wing of the Frogmouth, the fight lasted about three seconds with the owl not leaving the feeder box and the honeyeater giving up.
Without the pole it would’ve been a good shot but we all know thats how it happens ….
Andrew Newman
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Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Editing: NoneThis photo is of my in-laws pink and grey galah Major taken using the macro setting on the camera and enough patience to catch him when he stopped dancing.
Brett James
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Canon 600d – 200mm – f5/6 – 1/60 – ISO100
Hey guys! Another entry 🙂 starting to really get used to the camera, unfortunately the rain has been crazy here the past two days so getting out to get some good shots of birds is kind of hard. Managed to find a break and head to my very own backyard, lucky to find a Kookaburra perched on a branch looking right at me. After getting a few unfocused shots of him looking right at me he glanced to the side as though he knew I was taking a photo, even looking to the other side as well!!!
I hope to enter into more of these, I am trying to learn as much as I can.
Stephen McGrath
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I was wandering around the backyard and noticed more Magpie Larks than usual, peered over the fence and saw a heap of them pecking at a dead lizard… here’s one eyeing it off from the fence! Sony NEX-5N with the Sony E-Mount 55-210mm Lens – Shutter Priority Mode of 1/400 to avoid camera shake and in case the bird moved, auto ISO (it chose 400) and aperture (it chose f/6.3)
Tegan Ackley
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This photo was taken with my new Canon EOS 550D with an 18-55mm lens. No editing was done to this image.
I took this whilst walking my little dog along the grassy parklands that borders Bibra Lake in Perth Western Australia. This was a chance shot of a flock of White Cockatoos as they rhythmically danced above my head, trying to avoid the watchful eye of a hawk that was lurking close by.
Shirley Stanford
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this seagull was showing of his sexy to another on the ground at Cowes on Philip Is last weekend.
taken with Canon 20D (getting old now) at 100 ISO, 1/400th sec F8
William Paiva
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Since I like to shoot birds, this is gonna be very easy to me… this photo I took from the São Paulo zoo [Brazil]; I´m proudly to say that we have the most beautiful birds and this red arara [is one of the national symbols just for its beauty and colourfulness.
They´re so impatient so, I had to stay long until grab a nice shot and the distance they´re from the fence helped me to almost seems that I´ve been inside the cage.“exif”
Canon Rebel T1i
55-250mm @ 229mm
1/45
ISO 400
f5.6 [Aperture Mode]
Edward Goey
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Canon EOS 60D
f/7.1
1/160 second
ISO 250I was having a sandwich as a lunch in Chatters Garden in Hong Kong, when a group of sparrow came by. Without any hesitation, they came closer and waiting for my leftover, especially this little guy that brave enough to peck my breadcrumbs.
Dean Meixner
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Here’s a photo I’ve taken of my baby magpie … aka MeatPie … his family have been coming to my home for the last two or so years and it’s the first time that they’ve brought a baby with them … they’re very friendly, as friendly as magpies can be. MeatPie sings for hours after he’s had a fill of food I’ve left for them, he sits in an old potted tree and warbles away.
This photo was taken with a Samsung S85 (nothing flash) on the spur of the moment, I just grabbed the camera and took them. Why I took them was that MeatPie actually came up to my front window and tapped on the window to let me know that he was around … It’s nice to know that I’m now part of their family.
Jubbin Grewal
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Taken in Kenya.
Camera – Sony NEX 5
Lens – 18mm – 250mm
ISO – 200 (bright day)Taken at Lake Nakuru on a beautiful Sunny Day, it’s a flock (?) of Pink Flamingo’s!
Filip Wozniak
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Just a park duck…..
iPhone 4 @ lunchtime in the park.