Return to Hendrie Valley

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to return to Hendrie Valley to do some bird photography. It has been a number of months since I’ve been able to get out with a camera. We’ve had some very minor lifting of restrictions locally which allowed me the opportunity to spend a bit of time at Hendrie Valley again.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO-1600, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 8.3 metres

My recent return to Hendrie Valley was also the first time that I had a chance to test my custom C1-C4 mode settings on my E-M1X.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO-800, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 11.5 metres

Being able to change custom modes with a simple click or two on my mode dial made adjusting to birding opportunities very quick and easy.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-1250, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 6.9 metres

I will be making some minor tweaks to a couple of my custom settings such as changing my shutter speed in my Pro Capture H custom mode to 1/2500 from 1/1600.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1250, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 4.7 metres

The improvement in response time was nothing short of fantastic. I go from a larger bird-in-flight to a Pro Capture H run of a small bird taking off in an instant.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-320, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 8.1 metres

I was able to capture a number of images during my return to Hendrie Valley that I would absolutely would have missed if I had not programmed the custom modes on my E-M1X.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-500, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 14.5 metres

I haven’t been to Hendrie Valley to photograph birds for a number of months and I could tell my skills were a bit rusty.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-1250, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 12.7 metres

It was still an enjoyable outing that gave me chance to get in a good hike while observing and photographing birds.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-400, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 29.3 metres

I even had the opportunity to photograph an osprey with a fish it had caught. Unfortunately it was a good distance away and the images in this article are cropped quite aggressively.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-250, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 105 metres
Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-320, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 113.8 metres
Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 with M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter @ 300 mm, efov 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-320, Pro Capture H mode, subject distance 113.8 metres

Hopefully local restrictions will continue to be eased as progress is made with COVID-19 infections. I’ll certainly be grabbing my camera gear and my face mask to do more bird photography in the weeks and months ahead.

Technical Note:

Photographs were captured hand-held using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Image were produced from RAW files using my standard process.

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2 thoughts on “Return to Hendrie Valley”

  1. Tom,

    Your passel of birding images should be plastered all over the Olympus site and stores as testimony to a lot of things: namely, the resilience of the human spirit in the face of a pandemic, and along the same vein, the resilience of Olympus in the face of so much vitriol.

    PS – that bird among the branches is a favorite. The Oly’s AF is spot-on I must say as those branches are perennially a cause of birders’ headaches 😀 sharp branches with blurry birds shots

    Oggie
    http://www.lagalog.com

    1. Hi Oggie,

      One of the benefits of using Pro Capture H is that I can place a single AF point on a bird partially obscured by branches and simply wait for it to take flight. As long as the bird flies parallel to the focal plane of my camera’s sensor it will stay in focus.

      I think that Olympus is aware of the vitriol it faces with trolls, as well as with some individuals at some photography websites. From what I see the company is focusing on its strategy and moving forward.

      When the new M.Zuiko 150-400 f/4.5 with built-in 1.25 X teleconverter is launched it will really have a lot of nature and bird photographers take notice. I think it will be a game changer.

      Tom

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