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Cape White-Eye : Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden |
Follow-up morning visit to Kirstenbosch: Small perched birds, a butterfly and some wild flower photography at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
After a few days of rain in Cape Town I returned to Kirstenbosch with the objective to see how well my Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera / EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens will perform with the relatively close small birds and flower photography.
I knew I would have no problem with the Canon EOS 7D Mark II body - my only concern was the relatively long Minimum Focus Distance (MFD) of the 400mm prime lens. I generally have no issues with
Birds in Flight photography (with EOS 7D Mark II / EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens), but this combination could be challenging in the Kirstenbosch close-up / variable distanced perched small bird photography environment.
It took me a while to get used to the non-zoom 400mm Canon lens with its challenging MFD, but am overall quite satisfied with the body / lens performance for small bird, butterfly and flower photography - definitely my go-to kit for small bird, butterfly and flower photography at Kirstenbosch.
Last week at Kirstenbosch (in similar weather conditions) I tested my Canon EOS 70D paired with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens for
small bird and flower photography. Although the lens had a shorter MFD than the 400mm prime lens I found the image quality improvement, noise management, continuous shooting speed and Autofocus responsiveness of the EOS 7D Mark II / EF 400mm f.5.6L lens of a higher standard for my Kirstenbosch photography requirements.
New Kirstenbosch Bird Species Index
Kirstenbosch birds photographed during the morning:
- Southern Double-Collared Sunbird
- Cape white-eye
- Cape bulbul
- Dusky flycatcher
- Southern boubou shrike
- Karoo prinia
- Southern Double-Collared Sunbird
- Hadeda ibis
- Egyptian goose
Canon Camera / Lens: Birds and Flowers Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens
- Manual Mode: 400mm @ f/5.6 / Auto- ISO (Various) / 1/1000s - 1/2500s shutter speeds
- No Lens IS / Handheld
Post-Processing: Adobe Lightroom
Perched Small Birds at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
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Southern Double-Collared Sunbird Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden Cape Town |
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Cape Bulbul on Guard Duty Kirstenbosch Garden Cape Town |
Small Garden Acraea Butterfly at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
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Male Garden Acraea Butterfly Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Cape Town |
Plants / Flowers at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
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Wild Plant Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden Cape Town |
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Blooming Pincushion Protea Flower Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Cape Town |
Bird / Flower Photography Training Kirstenbosch More
Glorious Morning at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
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Fabulous Friday at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
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Vernon Chalmers 'Kirstenbosch Bird Species Index'
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Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Images © Vernon Chalmers Photography
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