Driving Ridgefield NWR’s auto tour, just coming out of the woods, I noticed the Great Egret and the Great Blue Heron way out in the field to my left (400 feet, after checking Google Earth). After taking some shots I realized that the egret was on a branch further back from the heron. I added the 1.4x extender to my 500mm and stopped down to f9 to increase DOF. It helped some but could have been stopped down even more. When I was finished shooting, not far ahead, the road took a 90 degree turn left as I drove so I could see the scene from the right side of the photo. The branch the egret is on is actually from a different tree and an estimated 15 feet behind the heron. After checking a DOF calculator, it seems I should have had a good 50 feet of DOF at 700mm, and therefore, a better focused egret. Maybe there is a greater % of DOF in front of the heron leaving less behind it?? Not sure, but in any event, I liked the appearance that these two birds were performing the same preening action so close to each other.
Canon 5D Mark III, 1/640, f9, ISO 640, 700mm, 6:02 p.m. Aug. 29, 2014
Dennis, my dof calculator that I use says that you should have been within the limits. Mine shows you have 53..55 ft of dof. Near focus is 375 ft and the far focus is 428.6 ft. This was calculated using the 5D mark II instead of your III, but I don’t believe that would make too much of a difference. Nice shot!!!
Thanks for the comment, Gary! I came up with the same figures you did. I suppose it’s possible that I have mis-estimated the distance the egret is from the heron. Fun shot anyway! 🙂