Birddogs today

[Matt. K]

Had a great time at Birddogs today. Met some new forum members, (who always seem to be the nicest people), and played with the lustful gear. Thanks for your hospitality Birddog.
Here's D70 member Belle with a bit of the kit.
http://www.pbase.com/matt_k/image/37090379

[MHD]

Oh my god! What a stunner! Whoohoo! *howl*

Oh and you look nice to Belle
(sorry... lens lust)

[Matt. K]

You're right MHD! She is a stunner! And F/2.8 to boot. Imagine the boke you'd get with this number. We love you, Mr Poon.

[birddog114]

Belle with the 70-200VR and the RRS portrait package in action
Very nice to meet both of you Belle & Bruno, hope we will see you again next meet and especially this coming Friday night.

[MHD]

And you to VR
And I hope you wear that stunning RSS peice

[Matt. K]

Would love to see Bruno and Belle at the dinner. Make an effort guys.

[Nnnnsic]

Being a camera-based workshop... anyone have any pics?

[birddog114]

Matt.K, Gary, Onyx, Belle & Bruno, Geoff!!!!!
Where are all your pics? and the pics shooting with Tamron 2x + 80-400VR? RRS BH55Pro BH?

[gstark]

Matt's already posted a couple; I need to extricate a CF card from a D70 at some stage.

[Onyx]

Matt.K, Gary, Onyx, Belle & Bruno, Geoff!!!!!
Where are all your pics? and the pics shooting with Tamron 2x + 80-400VR? RRS BH55Pro BH?

I dropped Gary off, took a detour on the way home. My folks insisted on going out for dinner - so we did that. Now I'm sorting thru the pics of today and I'll post some shortly.

[Mj]

yep... I took a few... but mostly on others kit... any strange angled outa focus weird looking pics found on your CF is probably my fault !!!

[gstark]

Ok.

My images from the mini meet can be found here.

Images Nos 5232 - 5240 were shot with the 80-400VR plus Matt's Tamron 2x converter. To gain some shutter spoed I bumped ISO to 800. The combo is very heavy and difficult to hand hold and achieve good focus, but when you do, the results are damn good.

No PP whatsoever; these are basic jpgs straight out of the camera, and resized only.

And I love 5229 - I think this one image sums up the entire day.

[MHD]

heheh! I think you need a bigger back yard Birddog! With that kind of firepower your FOV seems to limited to eyes now!

Nice work guys!

[bago100]

Gary

I love the pigeon shot.

The eyelid expression seems to say "Ah look at that. It's Saturday mornine and they're playing with their cameras again!!!!"

[gstark]

Gary

I love the pigeon shot.

Thanx, but that's probably my least favourite. I think I was still on ISO200, 1/100 sec, and found the lens hunting for focus; zooming in, even on the NEF, focus is slightly off and it's consequently soft.

[Onyx]

Nice shots Gary. Boy that 80-400 + 2x converter sure gets ya REAL CLOSE!!

[Bruno]

Heloo from Belle and Bruno,
We had a fab time meeting you all and playing with the toys.
Many thanks to you Birdie!

We uploaded a selection of our shots.
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/bmueller/uhm/

Hope to see you all again soon

[Geoff]

Lovely shots guys...beautiful in fact
It was great meeting you both as well!!

Geoff.

[MHD]

:P
Heloo from Belle and Bruno,
We had a fab time meeting you all and playing with the toys.
Many thanks to you Birdie!

We uploaded a selection of our shots.
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/bmueller/uhm/

Hope to see you all again soon

Friday?

Nice shots!

[Geoff]

Here r my shots from yesterday, most taken with my shiney new 50mm 1.4 but a few taken with the 70-200 VR, and some 12-24....

http://www.pbase.com/d70geoff/minimeet

Geoff.

[MHD]

I like this pic
Fixed!

for some reason before I was being returned
http://genji.image.pbase.com/u5/d70geof ... C_8348.JPG
as the address

[the foto fanatic]

Looks like you guys had a great time. Belle certainly raised the LQ (Looks Quotient) of the meet

Check this out - more gear than you'd see at a decent camera store:
http://www.pbase.com/d70geoff/image/37111843.jpg

I normally don't feel disappointed that I live in BrisVegas, but...

[gstark]

Great shots, everyone.

For everybody's information, the "slam it" shot in Geoff's collection was shot using the 80-400 + Matt's 2x converter

[Onyx]

My gallery: http://www.pixspot.com/thumbnails.php?album=34
If you haven't seen so already.

Belle - mind if I rip off DSC_5422a for my avatar or something?

DSC_5446 - is Birddog growing the funny weed in his backyard?!

[kipper]

What sort of price should you pay for a x2 Tamron Teleconvertor?

[Mj]

Yep... a great day was had by all I believe... but if Gary is going to use that damn 400 + TC2 I'm making sure I've shaved next time !!!

[darb]

holy crap, you'd wanna be careful using that thing anywhere near a trigger happy US soldier ! awesome.

[BBJ]

Thanks guys for the loverly pics, it's good for us interstaters to see what you all get upto at Birdies while playing with those nice toys.
Again Thanks
John

[Raydar]

MHD you image worried me for a bit, I couldn’t see any SB-800’s on the table
But then one from the back jumped out & grabbed my, Then the image was complete

Cheers
Ray

[ru32day]

Great photo of Belle. Can someone tell me what the big hoopy thing that looks a bit like a sextant is (just behind her left hand) and what it's for?

[phillipb]

A flash bracket.

[Greg B]

Great photo of Belle. Can someone tell me what the big hoopy thing that looks a bit like a sextant is (just behind her left hand) and what it's for?

As phillipb says, it is a flash bracket - Birdie is very keen on these, particularly useful with a longer lens, it gets the flash closer to the front of the lens avoiding possible shadowing etc.

A nifty bit of gear.

[phillipb]

... Which he's definetly going to need with his new toy.
By the way Greg, have you noticed how slow it is tonight? They must be having fun at the Xsmas party.

[Greg B]

Yes Phillip, and I am very envious.

But I hope a good time is being had by all.

[ru32day]

Thanks for answering my question.

I just hate it when significant other and I play the "What is that thing?" game and they guess right.

Looks like a great idea and even if it doesn't help the shots, worth it for the X Factor alone.