[Tora_2097]

Cool Magnus!
I can add one more (also a 100% crop). No Macro but 400mm focal lenghts @ minimum focus distance.

[djflod]

wow ...beautiful shot !!!

[Maximus3D]

Yours was much better than mine Tora, good work! it looks like you have invested in even more bigger (and expensive) glass if you have 400mm now.

/ Magnus

[Tora_2097]

I just had better weather

nah, Nikon makes a 400mm 2.8 but it breaks the bank (and your back as well). I think its around 8000 Euros or something, my wife would kill me if I ordered that... she even said so while I was browsing for this baby on the web .
In this case its just a 1.4 tele converter for more reach. In fact all my bird photos were shot with that combo. 300mm is just too short but beyond that it gets insanely expensive. I also do not want to carry that much or being stationary with a tripod due to heavy weight.

[Maximus3D]

Ok so it's your 300 plus a extender. You're getting some really fine results with it. Clean and sharp images.
True that a 400mm prime costs a fortune, and then some more.. too bad, it would have been sweet to own one of those beasts.
I'm currently looking into getting a old 300mm 2,8 prime lens but even such an old lens at 16+ years costs a lot of money today. I'm gonna try and get if if all pieces of my puzzle falls into place.

/ Magnus

[Bubbaloo]

You guys are busy little bees.

Nice shots!

[djflod]

I can add one more (also a 100% crop).

do it please

[Maximus3D]

From inside one of the churches in the city.



/ Magnus

[Tora_2097]

@ Maximus: A 300mm 2.8 is damn fine (both Canon and Nikon) and even the old ones are optically on par (mostly) with todays versions. I need more focal lenght though and dream of a 500 f4 lens. The cheapest one without autofocus is around 2k Euros in good condition.... Might be similar to a 300 2.8.

Anyway, its raining in Berlin and this July is in fact extremely bad in terms of weather. These are a few of the last ones I managed to take before the change in weather:









A super (!) unlikely event and yet it was right in front of me. Three hawks sitting in one line, the fourth was screaming someplace near. I was lucky to locate their nest on a cemetery and I meet them regularly. They are extremely shy and hard to photograph.

[rusteberg]

my son and I getting ready to go fishing:



bon voyage!!

[djflod]

Ok ... Who is who?

[rusteberg]

I'm the guy riding nude in the John boat! Duhhhh!

My dad is the guy paddling with a home made oar because they wanted 35 bucks for an oar at walmart after outboard motor went poots.

That's the same boat I used to fish up and down the mouth of the rio grande river in my youth.

If you tried that now, you'd have border patrol agents with scopes on you and you wouldn't be allowed back on U.S. soil.

Lots of good times in that little boat. Now I can begin passing them on to my #1 best buddy.

[macray]

the swan photo is great!

[Tora_2097]

Few birds to find in this time of the year so these are a bit different:

Firebugs trying to take over the world. The whole place was packed with them (hundreds of thousands I guess), you could not place a step without stepping on some of them...





And a solitary tinder fungus made into a home by some spider creatures underneath:

[Maximus3D]

Good looking pics as always Tora. One can shoot other subjects besides birds. Variation never hurts..
Firebugs, are those similar to fireflies ? meaning they glow in the dark just like the flies do.

Ok guys, here are a bunch of shots from a motorbike race i shot at the Falkenberg STCC track here in Sweden. I got tons more, this is just a small percentage of them all.












/ Magnus