In another vain attempt to get some useful shots with this Canon 75 mm - 300 mm telephoto lens I took @melinda010100's advice and plotted myself up in the garden and sat very still waiting for the birds to arrive so that I could photograph them.
It was a long wait as they dived in saw me and dived straight back out again but I got a photo of one bird over the garden fence as it sat in the tree next door and just looked at me. It must have thought I was some kind of scarecrow?
Imagine my surprise, nay shock, when I looked it up online and found out that it is an Eastern Wood Peewee? (Contopus virens)
Eastern Wood Pewee
First question is what on earth is it doing here in the UK? This bird is native to North America and is distributed across the Americas. I'm baffled.
So I tried this photo below in the reverse image search and it came back as an American Bluetit?(Psaltriparus minimus)
American Bluetit?
That is definitely not and American Bluetit. So I tried this photo below. it came back as a Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
Black-Capped Chickadee
Now this is getting bizarre. This is the last photo that I have to try to identify this bird. The search came back as a Black-Capped Chickadee again?
Black-Capped Chickadee
All of the photos are of the same bird which I have identified by guessing and looking it up 'in a book' as a Song Thrush. Plain and simple.
Google reverse image search got it wrong every time. The search results vomited up were all of birds native to North America and none of them migrate to the UK so what is going on here?
After careful thought and consideration I have come to the conclusion that humans are far superior to machines when it comes to things like this.
The 300 mm lens has got a pretty bad reputation for being unfocused when zoomed out fully and I can see why people have mentioned this.
It is true the images are soft and not as sharp as they could be with another much more expensive lens. The 75 - 300 mm is pretty cheap.
The takeaway from all this faffing about. When it comes to slightly unfocused images or partially obscured objects like birds. Humans win hands down.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it big G.
More in this series.
Angry Birds
Goldfinches in the garden
| Category | (Bird photography)
| Camera | (Canon EOS 70D)
| Exposure | (1/1000)
| f Stop | (f/5.6)
| ISO | (800)
| Lens | (Canon 75 - 300 mm lens)
| Location | Cambridegshire, England | |
Haha ... well it is definitely not a chick-a-dee. Score one for humanity. They have a very distinctive call. They basically say their name ... chick-a-dee-dee. They are very little too.
Hoorah! we got the tech on the ropes lol
You have more patience than me to sit still long enough to get all these shots, I can sit in a spot for 30 to maybe 90 Seconds only then I get bored and hyper and have to move on LOL
Haha it was a real battle to sit still for several hours. The birds are way to smart in this neck of the woods.
You did well, and the birds here are smart as well they know how to stay just out of the range of the camera lens I have on :)
I hatched a cunning plan by putting out a tray with water in it (my daughters idea)
A bird bath come watering hole and it worked. 🙌
I've got some better shots for next weeks featheredfriday post.😋
What a cool idea your daughter had and looking forward to seeing more shots
Sounds like Google needs to expand their European bird database. I would not have been able to identify that one for you, it's certainly not one that comes to my garden! I love getting a chance to see it though. You did great!
Thanks Mel, at least now I know the limitations of this lens. It's fine at 75 mm up to about 150 mm after that it all goes a bit unfocused and soft in the middle. I got some nice flower photos with it.
It was actually good to know that Google doesn't know everything...yet! lol
The song thrush is as the name suggests always singing. This one just sat there looking at me ;-)
I'm off as the interweb has ground to a halt here. Good night. Took over a minute to upload that photo above.
That is a great shot! A favor please... When @steemimages reblogs my posts could you leave a comment telling me? I'd like to upvote @steemimages occasionally in return for all the resteems!
And I just saw your comment about the maroon car being your wife's. That makes it even more horrible!
Thanks Mel, the bird photos are getting better I think. It'll be my pleasure to let you know when @steemimages reblogs your posts and the occasional upvote would be really appreciated.
With the steemimages account I'm trying to curate the most socially valuable content.
This is a social network and people like youself are what make this place work. Most people are not interested in the nuts and bolts of steem. They want a social network where they can feel comfortable first and foremost.
The fact that we may earn some crypto in the process isn't why people stay here. Steemimages doesn't make anything at all to be honest but it has taught me a lot about curation.
All of my voting on both my accounts is now fully manual. I dropped the autovoter a while back.
Yep the theft was compounded by the lack of police response and the insurance company refusing to lift a finger.
The insurance copany is called SAGA now I know why lol They made a saga out of a drama.
I have an alt account that I set up before the last hardfork and I have never really used it. I have thought about resteeming the featheredfriday posts with it. Any advice? @melshadow
Good
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lol! "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it big G." very good sir molometer, no comparison to human eyes and research!