[Leica] IMG: Great Blue Heron rookery

[abridge at mac.com (Adam Bridge)]

Along Putah Creek, east of Winters, is a rookery for great blue herons. This 
one has been there at least 5 years that I know of.

Today I took the 560 Telyt, tripod, and the NEX-7 to see what I could make 
of it.

My experience was positive - the lens handles much better with the NEX-7 
than it does with the huge Canon 1Ds MKII attached. But I didn't take my 
industrial-strength tripod with me so there was a bit of jiggle in these 
images. I got some killer HD video though that I'll share after I edit down 
for those who are interested.

The image of the lone bird on the nest is full-frame. The image of the two 
herons working on their nest is somewhat cropped.

This leads you to the latter image:

<http://adam-bridge.smugmug.com/gallery/15932409_sLDV2F#!i=1784315389&k=N6XvG4v>

I only did a little bit of sharpening to this image.

I'm guessing that the nest is between 70 and 90 meters from the camera. More 
to the long side than the short one, but I'm not great at judging distances.

I have included full-resolution images. There appears to be quite a bit of 
chromatic aberration which surprises me a bit. Not sure what is going on 
there.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, is this little flower I passed in the 
country-side south of town. I had seen it earlier in the day when I was 
cycling, and I'd stopped and taken a few photos with the 35mm Summicron I 
had on the NEX-7 at the time. But I wanted to explore it a bit closer 
because the flower itself is quite small, only a couple of cm or so.

<http://adam-bridge.smugmug.com/gallery/22003432_Lz2PWj#!i=1784951420&k=n8nGd9M&lb=1&s=A>

This is with the 100mm Leica APO-R. I used the new Noviflex mount which 
makes for a very stable mount although it presents a few issues with lens 
removal but nothing major, just a little to fuss with.

Again I have put up the full-sized image if you want to peer more deeply 
into the image.

Comments/critique/criticism always appreciated.

Enjoy!

Adam Bridge