Success + Camera Failure
Spent Friday and Saturday mornings enjoying low tide at Bolivar Flats. It was a nice chilly 38 deg. F on Friday at sunrise but the high winds kept the bird activity low. Saturday had less wind and more cooperative birds. Found a flock of Avocets hanging out near a sand bar off shore in the Gulf. Waded out to an adjacent sandbar and slowly made my way towards them. Didn’t want to spook them so I laid down a distance from their location and crawled towards them while pushing my ground pod along. Ended up moving +/- 40 yards on my elbows/knees, which I’m still feeling today. Had to stop along the way to rest and take photos of other shore birds in the area, including this cooperative Long Billed Curlew. Only minor cropping on this one to get him off-center in the photo.
Finally got fairly close to the Avocets and spent about an hour watching and taking photos of them. Right before I was going to leave, my camera locked up showing ERR 22 with instructions to remove/reinstall the battery. Did this several times without any luck. Packed my gear up and headed home. Ended up shipping my 7D to Canon repair service in California. Will hopefully get it back soon as I’ve got more birds to shoot before the year is done. This one doesn’t sound like a shutter so not sure what the issue is.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4x III teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II head
1/125 sec @ F 7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 700mm
Tim Timmis Photography 
Sorry to hear about your camera, hopefully it won’t be too serious.
December 1, 2013 at 6:39 pm
Sweet capture Tim. Nice light. Gotta love that thin DOF with the 500mm + extender.
Bummer on the camera. Looks like a shutter problem. Not exactly new for you. You typically wear ’em out more than most.
December 1, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Beautiful photo. Agree with Doug about the thin DOF, really makes the bird ‘pop’. Hope you get your camera back quickly!!
December 2, 2013 at 5:19 am
Thanks. Nothing new for me. I’ve had to send my cameras in for repairs several times over the years. I tend to wear them out.
December 2, 2013 at 5:31 am
Thanks Doug. This will be the second repair on this camera which is my usual excuse to upgrade but there isn’t anything currently available that I want so this one will get repaired and be the back-up camera for when I do upgrade.
December 2, 2013 at 5:34 am
Thanks Judy. The 500mm lens does a great job on the DOF but sometimes it is too narrow. Canon will get my camera on Tuesday and it usually takes a week for the repairs so it won’t be too bad, hopefully.
December 2, 2013 at 5:35 am
Great shot Tim. Love the DOF and background. No place like Bolivar. Hope the camera checks out and returns quickly. I can lone you a Nikon – D4, D800 or D300s. 😉 Hope to run into you out there soon.
December 2, 2013 at 6:06 pm
Quit trying to swing him over to the dark side David. He just needs to pony up and go full frame with the 1DX. They will have a new version of that before they update the 7D I bet. He’ll just need to keep the extender 1.4x III on it all the time.
December 3, 2013 at 10:36 am
Lovely photo. Sorry to hear about your camera… but glad to know you will get your Canon soon.
December 3, 2013 at 2:29 pm
Thanks David. Should get the camera back next week sometime. This repair is more expensive than a shutter so not sure what the problem is yet.
December 5, 2013 at 8:05 pm
Not thrilled with having to go full frame for wildlife. I’m going to wait to see what comes out next year. I’ll have the ability to get a 1DX but not sure that it is what I want.
December 5, 2013 at 8:07 pm
Thanks Cornel. Should get it back next week, hopefully. Luckily the weather in Houston is bad this weekend so I wouldn’t be going out to shoot anyway.
December 5, 2013 at 8:08 pm