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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Panoramas in the forests

I haven't had time lately to shoot much wildlife images and there isn't much wildlife to shoot here in the south of Germany at the moment. So I went out and shot some panoramas in the local forests.

I love the panorama format and I really like the results of my trips to the forests.
The Sigma 24mm/1.8 EX DG has become my favourite panorama lens. I made some great panorama images during my trip to China in August. I didn't have a tripod with me so I used it handheld all the time and the results were great. I try to keep it simple so I don't use a big and complicated panorama setup. I use Photoshops Photomerge as a stitching software and it works great for me. The results are great and I hardly have any problems with the overlapping of images nor ghosting effects in the images. Even if I use it handheld.
The Panorama images of the forests were made with a tripod and 3-Way Head, because I needed a lot of depth-of-field, which results usually in slow shutter speeds.

So here are some panorama images, I shot lately:



I finally received my new Canon 7D last week and I didn't really have time to fully test it yet. I took it with me last time to photograph mushrooms in the forest. Actually the last 2 panorama images here are made with the Canon 7D and the Sigma 24/1.8. My first impressions are really positive. I love the Live View function for macros and landscapes and the new screen is just amazing compared to the one in my 1D IIn and 400D.
I will post a few impressions of the 7D later this week.

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography
www.naturfoto-erras.de

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2.Place Fritz Pölking Junior Award

I was really happy when I heared that the GDT decided to award also the 2nd and 3rd Place of the Fritz Pölking Nachwuchspreis and that I got the 2nd place.

This is my first and International award and this is the Portfolio that got me 2nd place:

"Birdphotography - My Passion"

The winner of the Fritz Pölking Nachwuchspreis was Fergus Gill from Scottland. He won with a portfolio of wildlife images in winter. He is just 17 and already has some amazing images.

See his great images here: Fergus Gill

I also entered the Eric Hoskin Award and got into the final round, but unfortunately the Jury decided not to award any winner as they decided that the entered portfolios were not strong enough. This is the second time in a row that they did and I am seriously considering not to enter this category next year anymore.

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



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International Nature Festival in Lünen

This weekend I will be travelling to Lünen to the International Nature Festival organized by the german GDT.
I am looking forward to seeing some old friends there and watching some very impressive presentations by some great nature photographers.
I will also have the chance to check out the latest camera equipment and I will try to get my hands on the new Canon 7D. A camera which I finally offers nearly all the things I need as a naturephotographer.

I will post some images and some other great news :-) next week, when I will be back.

I can only recommend to check out the winning images of the ENJ and the WPOTY which will be published this weekend.

Sebastian Erras
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Back again

So finally I am back to good old Germany. I have been 2 wonderful weeks to China to see Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong and it was a pretty amazing trip. I took a lot of picture, but I didn't get the chance to shoot any wildlife there.
Then I went for 4 weeks to the South of France to see my Girlfriend. We made a few trips to the local flamingo ponds and to the Camargue. It was pretty hot there and full of mosquitoes.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my Sigma 500 due to the strict weight restrictions with Ryanair. I jsut brought a few lenses and my Sigma 100-300/4. I was able to get some shots of the flamingos, but I would have wished to have my Sigma 500 for the extra reach with me.

Here are some shots of the flamingos:

All shots were taken with the Canon 1D IIn and the Sigma 100-300/4 HSM handheld.

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography Sebastian Erras

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