Orchis pallens & Burnt Orchid

One of the rarer species in my area with only a few locations in Eastern Bavaria. I went there in the morning and it was raining straight for 2 days. It took me a while to find the exact location,but i was happy that they were still there.So far I photographed 3 new orchid species for me and I hope to get some more the next weeks.









I also went for a third time to the location of the burnt orchid and there even more orchids there than the week before. I was really unlucky with light. I had sun for a few hours and when I waited for the perfect late evening light clouds appeared.
So that was probably it for this year with the Burnt orchid and I am happy that I got the beautiful backlight images last week.
So here a few images from this week.







Images were taken with a Canon 7D - 70-200/4 IS - Sigma 150/2.8 - Tokina 12-24/4

Sebastian Erras
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Green winged orchid

Here is another orchid species I photographed this week - the green winged orchid (orchis morio). Another photographer told me the location for this orchid and joined me on Tuesday to photograph them. It was my first time to see and photograph this species.
I was really happy that there was a spot pretty close by to my place. We went there in the late afternoon and had great weather and it was pretty hot, too. Unfortunately the sun moved behind clouds the last hour just before sundown, so we didn't get the great evening light I had the weekend before with the burnt orchids.









I went there again the next day with the hope to photograph them again in perfect evening light.
First I was not lucky with the light as it was cloudy and secondly there were no orchids left.
So what happened. A Shepard moved with his sheep over the fields and they ate all the orchids. There was literally no single orchid left on that location. I was really disappointed and can still not understand why they are allowed the let their sheep grass on known locations of orchids.

The images were taken with a 7D - Sigma 150/2.8 and a beanbag

I hope that I will be able to photograph another new orchid species for me this afternoon. Weather doesn't look too promising as it is raining the whole day already, but we will see.

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Orchid Season has started !

So finally the orchid season has started here in the south of Germany.

The last weeks I visited some locations to photograph the burnt orchid (orchis ustulata) and the green winged orchid. I found a great spot for burnt orchids with over a hundred orchids. I went there 2 days in a row and I got pretty lucky with the weather. After a storm the sky cleared up and the sun appeared and gave 40 Minutes of beautiful evening light.







I had a so great time with these orchids, that I can't wait to visit all the other orchids in my area in the next weeks.

The images were taken with a Canon 7D - EF 70-200/4 L IS - Sigma 150/2.8 HSM - Sigma 24/1.8 and a beanbag.

So stay tuned for more orchids in the next days / weeks :-)

Sebastian Erras

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Anemone hepatica - Leberblümchen

Last weekend I have been able to spend some time in nature again. For the moment I don't really have the time for serious bird photography so I am trying my luck with some flowers. I went to a spot for Anemone hepatica (hepatica nobilis) and I found big purple fields in a forest near my old home. There were actually so many flowers that I didn't really know where to start and I had quite some difficulities to get started and be creative.

I haven't used my Sigma 150/2.8 HSM for quite a while now , but this time it served its purpose again and it performed perfectly. I also used my Sigma 24/1.8 EX for more wide angle makro shots and I have to say that I am still in love with that lens. For nearly most of the time I used a beanbag to shoot at low angle. I also brought my Gitzo Tripod but I didn't really used it, as it doesn't give me the flexibility I get with a beanbag.

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography - Sebastian Erras

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Hell and Pasque Flowers

This weekend I managed to finally go photographing a bit.

Since a week snow is gone and with the warm temperatures here in the south of Germany things are getting green and colourful again.
So on Thursday I went to a valley near Regensburg called "Höllbachtal" and I was received by an old sign showing me the direction "To hell" :-). It was the first time I visited this place and I am sure it will not be the last one. I arrived a little late and had backlight in the morning. I tried different shots and also made some panoramas.

Here are some images:

Canon 7D - Sigma 24/1.8 - Tokina 12-24/4 - Tamron 28-75 - Tripod

I tried my Tokina 12-24/4 for panoramas, but I found the distortion at 12mm very heavy and difficult to use for panoramas. I prefer much more my Sigma 24/1.8 , which has delievered perfect results so far.

Yesterday morning I was looking for some flowers and only found a few ones. It is still a little early here for them. In 1-2 weeks it should be a lot better and i hope to get some more results.
I was looking for some Pasque Flowers and I was lucky enough to find a few of them.

Canon 7D -Sigma 150/28 - Sigma 24/1.8 - Tokina 12-24/4 - Beanbag

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography - Sebastian Erras
www.naturfoto-erras.de

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First Impression of the Canon 7D

Last year in November I bought a Canon 7D. The 7D fullfilled nearly all my expectations to a camera for wildlife photographers. It has a fast frame rate, a newly improved AF, enough MP, lightweight, Live View and Video.
Unfortunately I didn't had time to test my 7D for wildlife photography yet. So last week I went for a week to Belgium to give it a try with the short-eared Owls. Last year I shot hundreds of images with my Canon 1DIIn the Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM and the 1.4x or 1.7x konverter. I was curious to see if the 7D could hold up to my beloved 1DIIn.

So here are my first impressions.

Resolution and Noise

The one point I was most curious about was, if the Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM (with konverters) could deliver enough resolution for the 18MP of the 7D.
After my first day of shooting Herons and Grey Partridge and viewing the results I was definitely relieved to see that I shouldn't have to worry:

Here is an image I shoot at ISO 5000 and a 100% Crop (click on the image to see the full version)



100% Crop

Canon 7D - Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM + Kenko 1.4x TC - f8 - 1/1000s - ISO5000 - Window Mount

I was quite impressed by the resolution at ISO5000. If I see some of my images which I shoot at ISO1600 with my 1DIIn than the 7D is a good step forwards.

I also made some images ath different ISO settings and put the 100% Crops togehter into 1 image:

The images were processed with Aperture 3 and no Noise Reduction was applied.

AF Performance:

Light conditions were not the best during the week I was in Belgium. It was grey the whole day with no sun. So it was a difficult situation for the AF and a good one to test the AF performance under difficult light situations for me.
With the modified Kenko 1.4x konverter the AF worked very good. Just as I was used to with my 1DIIn. In One Shot Mode the AF locked quickly on my subject. I also tried the Soligor 1.7x Konverter, which used quite often with my 1DIIn. Under this light conditions the 7D had quite some problems to lock focus on the subject and AF was not really a pleasure to use. I will have to test the 1.7x konverter with sunlight to see if performs better then, but under grey conditions it didn't work well for me.
I am very happy with the Kenko 1.4x Konverter and the AF performance in One Shot Mode. I didn't really get a chance to make test in AIServo Mode. I hope that I will get some chances in the near future.

Here are some more images from that week:






I hope that I will be able to shoot some wildlife images with my 7D in the next months.

Sebastian

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Best of 2009

2009 was a great year for wildlife photography for me. From January until August I lived in the Netherlands and enjoyed there some great bird photography opportunities. Since I am back in the South of Germany wildlife photography has come to a minimum. A few weeks ago I realized that I haven't used my Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM for nearly half a year and I haven't had a chance to test it with my new Canon 7D.
At the moment I am browsing through some old images and making a selection for the upcoming competitions and I thought it might be nice to make a short "Best of 2009" selection and post it here on my blog so that I at least have some updates here ;-).

2009 I focused on 5 specific subjects: - Short-eared Owls - Purple Herons - Bluethroat - Black-tailed Godwits - Marsh Harriers

I am very satisfied with the results I achieved last year and i really hope that I get some more nice images this, even though the outlook for 2010 is not looking so good at the moment for me, as it is my last year of my studies.

So here are my 10 most favorite images of 2009













All of these images were taken with my favorite combination : Canon 1D IIn and the Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM in combination with either a Kenko 1.4x or a Soligor 1.7x converter.

I hope that I have time in February to go to Belgium again to photograph Short-eared Owls.

Sebastian Erras
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