Camera Labs

LOL I love it K

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Got out today to the farm where a Swift Fox has been hanging around. Good news is they stopped feeding it about a month ago but seems like he has decided this is gonna be home. He has thinned out and looks really healthy which is good. Hopefully he is not too used to humans. When I first set up my blind he wasn't around and when he came back it took him a good hour to settle down and then I spent another 2.5 hours waiting for shots. No doubt about the fact that he wasnt used to and didnt like the blind that close but eventually it settled down and I got a few shots. And it seems like it has a partner now as well.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Beautiful looking fox, good set and your patience is good waiting 2.5 hours.

Cheers

_________________
Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Awesome catch wolf!!

Been looking for a good multi use/camo blind.
KEL has a nice one but it is a bit on the small side for me and of course I don't want to go too big ...
What type/size do you use and is there anything you would change or choose differant if getting another one?

_________________
Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

I use the Ameristep® Outhouse Ground Blind quite a bit if I find a good spot and the weather is iffy or if I wanna leave it there for the weekend. Its always in my trunk.

Most of the time though I just use a rig I came up with myself... I bought a piece of realtree material measuring 13 feet by 6 feet. I cemented on loops/sleeves to allow me to fasten 4 carbonfiber tent poles to it. I have 2 sets of 4 poles 4 feet long and 6 feet long extended. I cut in 9 holes at 3 hieghts, 12 inches off the ground, 36 inches off the ground and 58 inches off the ground, to fit my lens through. I cemented pieces cut out for the holes back on at the top point of each hole on the outside so that you cannot make out the holes and you can just push the lens through the hole you want and the pieces that I cememnted back on just flap out of the way.... hope that makes sense. The pieces were cut from a seperate piece and cut slightly larger than the holes. I've also made it so that you can use the full 6 foot hieght or roll up the top and make it only 4 feet high depending on what you need using ties cemented into place.

This setup allows me to set it up as a basic wall. in a circle, lean in the poles and you have a teepee shape but my favorite use is to wrap it around a tree in a teepee shape. In this configuration it even fools a lot of people as it looks like and abnormally flared tree trunk. At times I also just throw it on the ground and lay under it. I've also lugged it up a tree and wrapped it around branches. I've put several pieces of cord around the edges to use as tie-offs which also help in just tieing it between two trees and eliminating the poles all together as well as tieing it off to branches while up in a tree. The poles all have stake-like points on them to secure in the ground so it stands on its own when required.

It may sound odd but it is honestly the most functional blind I have and I can make it work almost anywhere and only takes minutes to set up. I've yet to find a commercial product as flexable as this is for photography and as easy to carry and set up.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

I should add I actually have 2 of the above self-made blinds... one with a summer pattern and one with a winter pattern.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Funny story goes with this set...

So yesterday was supposed to be sunny and it was cloudy all day so I chose to stay home and work on some other stuff.... today was supposed to be cloudy and it was a travel afternoon for me so I figured what the heck and stayed out late last night. Woke up early with one heck of a hangover but the sun was out so having the morning before I needed to catch a plane I thought lets get out for a few hours and I can sleep on the plane. Got outside and there was a sustained wind of 50kph with gusts up to 65kpr. I was up so I fugured what the heck and went for a drive. Nothing was flying or moving much so after about an hour I pulled over for a bio break. I went over the ditch and behind a few trees when I noticed a movement. To my surprise this guy was resting about 70 meters away from me up wind. With the wind being that strong it didnt hear me so I went and grabbed my camera. When I returned he was asleep and over the next 15 minutes or so I managed to get within 30 meters of him without him taking notice and still dozing for the most part so I ducked behind a big tree that I had kept between me and him to block his view as best I could as I approached. There was rabbit fur all around him so I figure he just had a good meal and was sleeping it off not paying much attention to anything. The only thing I wished for after was that I would have gotten a few shots with his eyes wide open.

I managed over 100 pics and ended up with 21 keepers... These are by far my best Red Fox pics to date... I guess sometimes you just need to be lucky...











I absolutely love this next pic but it was also at this point that he snapped out of his slumber and took notice of me and was gone in a flash... one of the more memorable encounters of the year so far for me.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

cool pics, good timing on the break. Awesome Surprise . I guess one of the pleasures of living in a large remote country like Canada is to come across such varied wildlife. I guess Australia is a bit like this and living two hours east of Melbourne does open up a few possibilities. We just get kangaroos instead of bears and foxes etc. Must visit Canada one day, we nearly migrated there 28 years ago, but came to Australia instead.


Wolfsong , do you shoot with AI servo or single shot focus ?


we only get the normal red fox that was brought out here from England many years ago. Shame really as they play havoc with the native wildlife.

I have only rarely come across them bushwalking they are just too quick, very hard to surprise them during the day. Obviously you spot them occasionally crossing the roads at dusk or dawn, but that is about it.
We got a few on the farm when we were out rabbit shooting, ie spotlighting at night. Once on the farm the cattle dog and my German shepherd went out after one, it appeared that they had the same top speed on the flat in the paddocks, but once the bush started it dissappeared. Way too agile for them. My parents have sold the farm since, it was only 100acres, just a bit of a hobby farm.


I was out in the local wetlands a few days ago I surprised this one, only got a couple of shots before he took off. Didn`t bother posting it at the time, as I couldn`t get any better or closer shots

_________________
Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

AI servo Max... Foxes are super spooky up here as well... only thing more twitchy than a fox here would be the coyotes and wolves. Coyotes because there is a bounty on them and everyone shoots them. Wolves are always crazy hard to approach nevermind the fact they are so rare unless you head way up north and even there encounters are slim... Foxes for some reason are tollerated a lot more here and their numbers are high throughout the province.

Rant On!!

On the subject of preditors... they said on CNN yesterday that during the budget battle in the USA one of the riders that a republican attached as a favor to someone is to take the wolf off the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho . This will open the door for ranchers to shoot them on thier land... You would have thought they learned their lesson the last time they drove them to extinction in this area. You would think in this day and age we would be wiser than this... including the ranchers. Add to this that several environmental groups in the past have offered to compensate the ranchers for their cattle loss when it does rarely happen and one really needs to start questioning the reasoning. Sad to say but at least in some backwards and intellectually challenged parts of the world the wolf is still misunderstood and misrepresented. I find it amazing that ranchers in Canada along the edge of the rockies deal with a lot higher wolf population and have found multiple ways of dealing with them without shooting them.

Dont get me wrong.. we have issues everywhere including here in Saskatchewan. Here the farmers shoot all the coyotes (the government has a $20.00 bounty on each coyote as long as all 4 paws were brought in. In 2010 it was announced that more than 71,000 have been killed since the bounty was implimented in 2009, a 5 month program, costing the government more than 1.5 million ) and then shoot and complain about all the richardson's ground squirrels because some of their cattle break legs because of their burrows. Someone needs to explain to the farmers that if they would stop shooting the coyotes and taking potshots at all the hawks and other raptors up here these species would go a long way in controlling the ground squirrel population but again... logic at times seems to be very illusive for some individuals.

Here is a little writeup on the rider presented in the USA

http://mystateline.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=244927

A note on my pics above... the reason most of my pics at this time of year are all extreme closeups is cause everything is still brown and dead so it really doesnt add to a pic to include some of the environ. I would love to have this same encounter in a few months when everything is green and in bloom. This meddow where I found the fox will full of spring flowers in about 2 months.

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Fantastic shots Wolf.

1 less starling around the house. Taken in my backyard.

Coopers Hawk

_________________
Rui

_______________________________________
Nikon D90 w/ Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II DX, Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 D, Nikkor af-s 35mm f/1.8G DX
Nikkor AF 70-300 f/4-5.6 D, Nikkor AF 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 D ED VR

wow nice shot.

_________________
Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

awesome rui!

_________________
Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Not exactly wild, but it's a menace! It's had a couple of blackbird fledgelings this past 2 days.
Our neighbours cat.

.

_________________

Nikon D700 & D7100 bodies + Nikkor 300mm F2.8 VR11, 1.7TC, 50mm F1.4G, 16-35mm f/4G VR, 105 F2.8 VR macro, 70-300mm lenses. A couple of filters, Giotto tripod & ballhead. Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcarlos/

@ Carlos, did you shoot this with the new 300mm and TC, was it hand held.


Cheers

_________________
Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

4x, yes I did mate. (1/640th, F5.6, ISO 400. slight crop & saturation upped a touch)

_________________

Nikon D700 & D7100 bodies + Nikkor 300mm F2.8 VR11, 1.7TC, 50mm F1.4G, 16-35mm f/4G VR, 105 F2.8 VR macro, 70-300mm lenses. A couple of filters, Giotto tripod & ballhead. Lowepro Slingshot 302 AW

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcarlos/