# New website with my pigeon photos



## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

I posted something similar over in the General Section. I rarely leave this Homing Pigeon section of the forum - there's a whole 'nother bunch of folks over there!

Anyway, in case there are others like me who pretty much stick to this section of the forum:

Some of you may have seen some of my photos I occasionally post here on this forum. After some years now of accumulating photos of my birds and some of my friends and club mates, I've decided to put them all in one place. 

I made this one of my summer projects and I finally think it in good enough shape to share with everyone. I decided to go this route for a few reasons. For one thing, the photos seemed to be getting some traction and I made a few sales, so I really needed to have all my best stuff in one place and with a backend that made sales easy. (One of my goals is for my birds to pay for their own feed and entry fees. I might reach that goal this year!). But I also did this for my own protection, as many of the photos were getting used (stolen) without my permission. Now they are at least watermarked. I tried to price them fair enough that people will also be willing to do the right thing and pay for the use instead of just taking them assuming they are free.

I also have a goal of producing a photo wall calendar of some of the best images. I'll announce that through the website and Facebook (and probably here, too  )

If anyone uses Instagram and wants to follow me, I post many of my pigeon photos there: @kastleloft

On Facebook? The Pigeon Photographer is there.. I'll be posting photos there, too. If you are a user of Facebook, simply like my page and my photos will show in your feed when I post them.

If you just want to poke around and look at the photos, they are on ThePigeonPhotographer.com. I'll be adding more photos as I shoot them.

Enjoy! And thanks to the many members of this forum who have supported me already and who have been following along the way these past couple of months. Ashby Loft, Southtown Racers, First to Hatch, etc., Thanks!


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## V-John (May 15, 2008)

I am always amazed by your photos and am sure glad when you post them... 

And your comment made me laugh...... Because its true!


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## dublin boy (Jun 4, 2011)

Great photos kastle , Just curious , in the album `in the loft `, spread Trenton hen guards her box , what colour is this bird ? any info on her ?


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## Josepe (Jan 10, 2011)

Just Awsome.


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## blongboy (Nov 10, 2009)

thats a killer picture


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## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

dublin boy said:


> Great photos kastle , Just curious , in the album `in the loft `, spread Trenton hen guards her box , what colour is this bird ? any info on her ?


Thanks! The Trenton hen, according to our resident color genetics expert MaryOfExeter, is a brown spread. She's a terrible racer lol. So she's now a foster mom and even a dropper sometimes on race day. Her feathers fade out in the sun and I think her eyes are very sensitive to constant sunlight. But she's a sweet hen. I'd honestly like to find a new home for her, but my wife has claimed her says "hands off!" She is one of my original birds gifted to me when I first started flying again.


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## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

V-John said:


> I am always amazed by your photos and am sure glad when you post them...


Thanks everyone! It's always a thrill when I get something interesting. I'm going to try something new in the coming weeks as I'm training my young birds. If I get anything worthwhile, I'll post some.


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## dublin boy (Jun 4, 2011)

Kastle Loft said:


> Thanks! The Trenton hen, according to our resident color genetics expert MaryOfExeter, is a brown spread. She's a terrible racer lol. So she's now a foster mom and even a dropper sometimes on race day. Her feathers fade out in the sun and I think her eyes are very sensitive to constant sunlight. But she's a sweet hen. I'd honestly like to find a new home for her, but my wife has claimed her says "hands off!" She is one of my original birds gifted to me when I first started flying again.


Thanks kastle ,
I have just stumbled across the original 2010 thread about her . Dilute was also suggested in it , and the pics of her sun bleached after she was lost on you , that was some transformation .


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## ThePigeonShack (Jun 14, 2012)

What lens do you use for the flight pics and what is the aperture on your camera?

I have a Canon 7D, I am very interested in learning to shoot birds in action


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## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

teocallipittz said:


> What lens do you use for the flight pics and what is the aperture on your camera?
> 
> I have a Canon 7D, I am very interested in learning to shoot birds in action


the 7D is a great camera and will work fine for this kind of photography. The motor drive is decent, but not super-high-end like the sports and wildlife photographers use. You can overcome that with superb timing, though.

Generally, the longer lenses are better for this kind of photography because you can reach our further and the long lenses help isolate the bird from the background making the background less of a distraction. 

To be specific, the long glass I use is generally a 70-200mm f/2.8 USM IS and a 300mm f/2.8 IS. I sometimes use glass as long as 500 mm f/4 and a 600mm f/4 but it's a little overkill and the birds are moving so fast they are hard to track.

Aperture isn't a big factor. Shutter speed, autofocus and motor drive to a degree. The photos I do in the studio do not require autofocus OR motor drive. You need a shutter speed of at least 1000th of a second if not more. If you look at my site, you'll see the EXIF data beside the photos and you can see the shutter speeds. Some of them exceed 2500th of a second (the outdoors photos - not the studio ones).

If you added a 70-200 f/4 to your 7D, you would be equipped well enough for these kinds of photos. But the rest would be up to you. Many, many people assume it's the camera that takes the photo. That's far from the truth. It's what's behind the camera that counts.

Practice practice practice. I have a bazillion bad photos of pigeons. Trust me.


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