A World Through Lenses » Photography http://awtlblog.vitsco.com Our world through the lenses. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:05:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Star gazing with Canon EOS 7D http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/08/star-gazing-with-canon-eos-7d/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/08/star-gazing-with-canon-eos-7d/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:45:56 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=3895 Last night the sky was clear with no cloud coverages. My friend and I drove to a farm near Pickering and did some star gazing. I brought my camera gears along to do some simple astrophotography.

First easy target for the camera is the moon. I’ve posted my photo of the first full moon [...]]]> Last night the sky was clear with no cloud coverages. My friend and I drove to a farm near Pickering and did some star gazing. I brought my camera gears along to do some simple astrophotography.

First easy target for the camera is the moon. I’ve posted my photo of the first full moon of year2010 before. Beautiful as the full moon is, it is actually too bright and does not have enough contrast on the moon surface to see some of the craters. A new moon will actually offer much better details than a full moon because of the contrast provided by the shadows on the moon’s surface. Last night is 2 day past moon’s first quarter, the moon is actually about 57% full. However it still offered enough shadows on the moon’s surface so that some more details can be seen.

The same gear as the last moon shot was used. Canon EOS 7D was coupled with Sigma 100-300 F4 & Sigma 1.4x teleconverter all sitting on the Manfrotto 055 Pro tripod. This gives me a relative stable platform for the camera and an equivalent focal length of 672mm. The following photo was shot at ISO 100, F11 @ 1/100th second.


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Permalink | Tags: , | Categories: Landscape, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/08/star-gazing-with-canon-eos-7d/feed/ 0 Figure/doll photography 121 – Blurry photos – How to tame the focus http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-121-blurry-photos-how-to-tame-the-focus/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-121-blurry-photos-how-to-tame-the-focus/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:01:29 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=3448 This is another figure/doll photography 121 post. I’ve heard from many people as well as seen from many forum posters that they can’t seem to get sharp images for their figure/doll. Some of these people simply didn’t know to use the macro focus mode on their point and shoot camera. However, a lot of [...]]]> This is another figure/doll photography 121 post. I’ve heard from many people as well as seen from many forum posters that they can’t seem to get sharp images for their figure/doll. Some of these people simply didn’t know to use the macro focus mode on their point and shoot camera. However, a lot of them are new users of D-SLRs or have switched from point and shoot digital camera to D-SLRs. In this post, I’d like to explore some of the difference between a point and shoot digital camera and a D-SLR that may cause new and unfamiliar user to get blurry photos. I will also explore a few things on the D-SLR and are specific to D-SLR that may cause blurry photos. I will be using nendoroid, standard PVC figure, as well as doll as my subject. As usual all photos in the post have higher resolution images linked so click on the thumbnail to see better details.

Be aware, this post is image heavy and may take a bit longer to load.


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Permalink | Tags: , | Categories: Dollfie, Figure, Nendoroid, Photography, Toys, Tutorial | One comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-121-blurry-photos-how-to-tame-the-focus/feed/ 1 Figure/doll photography 121 – How to produce black background http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-how-to-produce-black-background/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-how-to-produce-black-background/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:00:21 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=3186 I’m going to call this a figure/doll photography 121. It’s not a 101 because even though what’s presented here is what I know of, it may or may not be correct. It’s not a 123 since I’m not really providing a step by step instruction. So some where between 101 and 123, I hope [...]]]> I’m going to call this a figure/doll photography 121. It’s not a 101 because even though what’s presented here is what I know of, it may or may not be correct. It’s not a 123 since I’m not really providing a step by step instruction. So some where between 101 and 123, I hope this becomes helpful to someone. And through that, the knowledge is transferred from one to another, and hence the name 121.

Black background, there are a lot of myths about it. There are talks about how to use black seamless paper, black cloth, or even black velvet behind the subject to create it. Then there are talks about using post production editing tools such as Photoshop to achieve it. However, neither of these approaches produces what I would call a true black background. Black background material is always visible due to light reflection, even black velvet shows up under some lighting conditions. And then there are many cases where the use of background material is just not practical or not possible. Photoshop on the other hand, will product a true black background, but typical masking technique to mask out your suject will produce an unnatural edge around it, this is on top of the amount of work needed to mask the fine details. In this post, I will try to walk through my technique in creating what I would call a true black background, just like what I have done below for Dollfie Dream Kanu Unchou. I’ve used this technique for many years now, mostly for floral photography but used sparsely for figure photography as well. however it can easily be applied to much bigger subjects such as dolls, real people and even other bigger subjects that you might want to photograph. And it’s all done straight out of camera with no background material and no Photoshop work.


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Permalink | Tags: , , | Categories: Dollfie, Figure, Photography, Toys, Tutorial | 7 comments ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/02/figuredoll-photography-how-to-produce-black-background/feed/ 7 No telescope, no problem! Canon 7D doing astronomy http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/01/no-telescope-no-problem-canon-7d-doing-astronomy/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/01/no-telescope-no-problem-canon-7d-doing-astronomy/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:33:43 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=3051 Today is the first full moon of 2010. That large beautiful moon up on sky is calling out to me to try out my Canon 7D DSLR on it. So despite the -15°C (with wind chill -20°C) weather, I geared up and went to my backyard for a bit of backyard astronomy. Okay so [...]]]> Today is the first full moon of 2010. That large beautiful moon up on sky is calling out to me to try out my Canon 7D DSLR on it. So despite the -15°C (with wind chill -20°C) weather, I geared up and went to my backyard for a bit of backyard astronomy. Okay so it is not the ideal place to do any astrophotographing since I live right in the city. The large amount of light pollution from city lights and the air distortion in the city are all enemies of astronomy. But in such cold weather, I really don’t want to drive up north just for a few photo of the moon. Not to mention, just as the title suggests, I don’t actually own a telescope. I was merely trying to see how much my Canon EOS 7D can capture when combined with my long lenses. I have a Sigma 100-300 F4 and a Sigma 1.4x teleconverter. The Sigma 100-300 F4 @ 300mm coupled with the Sigma 1.4x teleconverter gives me a focal length of 420mm. On the 1.6x Canon EOS 7D it gives me an effective 672mm focal length.

I started with my daily tripod / head combo, the Gitzo GT1541 Mountaineer carbon fiber tripod and Markins Q-Ball Q3 Emille. Now that’s one big mistake. The little 4 section light Gitzo tripod is obviously not stable enough to photograph something that’s some 380,000 kilometers away, which is how far the moon is away from the earth. And the Markins Q-Ball even though stable enough to shoot earthly things but definitely slips a bit when having the big lens aimed upwards. So even with mirror locked up, and remote release cable, the image is still very blurry. Here’s the result, click on the image to see in full resolution.

Canon 7D, Sigma 100-300 F4 @ 300mm, Sigam 1.4x teleconverter, manual exposure @ ISO 100, F8, 1/100 sec, manual focus using live view.


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Landscape, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2010/01/no-telescope-no-problem-canon-7d-doing-astronomy/feed/ 0 “White” animal in the zoo – Arctic Wolf http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-arctic-wolf/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-arctic-wolf/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:14:21 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=2553 Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

This is the third and last post [...]]]> Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

This is the third and last post in the “white” animal series. And the star of this post is the Arctic Wolf. I’ve had posted my photos of the Arctic Wolfs at the Toronto Zoo before in this post. But the new exhibit is much bigger and the wolfs looked much happier in there.

Looks like a big white dog, but this is actually the Arctic Wolf.

Arctic Wolf


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-arctic-wolf/feed/ 0 “White” animal in the zoo – Snowy Owl http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-snowy-owl/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-snowy-owl/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:46:22 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=2535 Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

This is the second post in the [...]]]> Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

This is the second post in the “white” animal series. And in this post, Snowy Own is the featured animal.

Here’s a shot of the pair of Snowy Owls on display.
Snowy Owl


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-snowy-owl/feed/ 0 “White” animal in the zoo – Polar Bear http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-polar-bear/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-polar-bear/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:46:19 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=2475 Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

So this first post of the series [...]]]> Metro Toronto Zoo opened the 10 acre Tundra Trek show casing a lot of arctic animals. So what “white” arctic animals are there? Well, there’s Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Snow Goose, and Snowy Owl. However only three of them are on display when I visited.

So this first post of the series and the featured “white” animal is Polar Bear. Toronto Zoo now has three polar bear. All of them were little cub that spent some time in the Toronto Zoo before. I have photo of them when they are just few months old. There are two female Aurora and Nikita. This pair of twin sisters were just little cubs then they first came to Toronto Zoo in 2001. You can see my photos of them in this posted titled ‘Polar bear cubs at the Toronto Zoo’. There’s also a male named Inukshuk who also came to Toronto as an orphan bear in 2003. You can see my photo of Inukshuk when he is just a little cub in this post titled ‘New polar bear cub in the zoo‘.

Out of water, Refreshing…

Polar Bear


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/11/white-animal-in-the-zoo-polar-bear/feed/ 0 In the garden after the rain http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/in-the-garden-after-the-rain/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/in-the-garden-after-the-rain/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:33:46 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=1528 Took a few quick snap shot after the morning rain. The wind’s howling strong and cannot get a good macro shot of anything without some motion blur. These two are the best of the bunch. All taken with Canon EOS 7D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro lens.

The last rose. This is the [...]]]> Took a few quick snap shot after the morning rain. The wind’s howling strong and cannot get a good macro shot of anything without some motion blur. These two are the best of the bunch. All taken with Canon EOS 7D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro lens.

The last rose. This is the last rose of the season. Seeing it standing there by itself in the wind and the rain. Just simply cannot resist to snap a picture.
The last rose

Droplets. Water droplets left by the rain created an interesting effect when look up close.
Droplets

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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Floral, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/in-the-garden-after-the-rain/feed/ 0 Bird photography with Canon 7D http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/bird-photography-with-canon-7d/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/bird-photography-with-canon-7d/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:52:27 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=1076 I took my new Canon EOS 7D out for a field test on Sunday. Practiced a lot of shooting on these mallards and gulls trying to get a feel for how the auto focus system works and what settings are the best for tracking birds.

The detail captured by the 7D is amazing. Shooting [...]]]> I took my new Canon EOS 7D out for a field test on Sunday. Practiced a lot of shooting on these mallards and gulls trying to get a feel for how the auto focus system works and what settings are the best for tracking birds.

The detail captured by the 7D is amazing. Shooting these mallards on the water it captured incredible amount of detail compared to my old 10D or even to the 1D Mk2 that I have used for bird photography before.

Duck


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Permalink | Tags: , , , | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/bird-photography-with-canon-7d/feed/ 0 Landscape photo with Canon 7D http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/landscape-photo-with-canon-7d/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/landscape-photo-with-canon-7d/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:03:44 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=1044 It’s a bit late for fall colours in where I live. But came across this tree in East Point Park that still got the full set of leafs in brilliant fall colour. With the sun shining on the top, you feel like watching a magic light show when lying under the tree and looking [...]]]> It’s a bit late for fall colours in where I live. But came across this tree in East Point Park that still got the full set of leafs in brilliant fall colour. With the sun shining on the top, you feel like watching a magic light show when lying under the tree and looking up into the canopy.

Eastpoint Park


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Permalink | Tags: , | Categories: Landscape, Photography | 2 comments ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/landscape-photo-with-canon-7d/feed/ 2 Out with the old and in with the new… http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:45:09 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=1024 Well for my camera gear anyway. My old trusted DSLR, the Canon EOS 10D is feeling a bit outdated. I’ve had this camera for over 6 years. While it still takes excellent pictures, I am however itching to explore the improvements and features of the new cameras out there. There have been many new [...]]]> Well for my camera gear anyway. My old trusted DSLR, the Canon EOS 10D is feeling a bit outdated. I’ve had this camera for over 6 years. While it still takes excellent pictures, I am however itching to explore the improvements and features of the new cameras out there. There have been many new generations of cameras in the same line since the release of 10D. Canon has released 20D, 30D, 40D and 50D over the past 6 years. Now they are all great cameras, however the improvement didn’t seem drastic and I always felt that a good photographer is more in the skills than in the gears. However after seeing what the new Canon EOS 7D brings, I was overwhelmed by the features that 7D is bringing and so I finally decided that it is time to revamp my camera gear.

When I say a revamp of the camera gear I really meant a big revamp not just the camera but other things that go with the camera. :D I decided that since I am revamping my gears, might as well revamp it to my satisfaction on everything. This way these gears will last me many good long years before I would want to take another upgrade. So what did I want to be upgraded?

  • A new carbon fiber monopod.
  • A new carbon fiber tripod.
  • A new ball head for my new tripod.
  • Upgrade the current Sigma 24-70 F2.8 EX to the new version with the new hyper-sonic motor (HSM).
  • Upgrade the Canon EOS 10D to Canon EOS 7D.
  • Upgrade the compact flash card to two Transcend 600x 8G UDMA-6 cards.
  • A smaller backpack for my gears for those day long photo trips.

So here’s the result of the upgrade. On the left my old Canon EOS 10D with battery grip. Mounted is my old Sigma 24-70 F2.8 EX. The camera is mounted on a Manfrotto 055Pro tripod with a Gitzo G1276M ball head 2. On the right it’s my new Canon EOS 7D. Mounted is my new Sigma 24-70 F2.8 EX HSM. The camera is mounted on a Gitzo GT1541 carbon fiber tripod with a Markins Q-Ball Q3 ball head. In the middle are my usual lenses that I didn’t need to upgrade. They are my ultra-wide zoom Sigma 12-24 F4.5-F5.6 (left), my telephoto zoom Sigma 100-300 F4 EX (middle), my macro prime Canon 100 F2.8 USM (right), and my extender Sigma 1.4x (front).

Canon EOS 7D gear

A few things that I also bought as part of the revamp but are not in the photo. The battery grip for 7D is still in transit to me, hopefully it will arrive next week. I bought a Lowepro Flipside 300 backpack which is small and compact but can carry all my gears that I need for the day with me. I’ve also bought some studio lighting equipment for my miniature studio.


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new/feed/ 0 Pasta arts? http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/pasta-arts/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/pasta-arts/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:03:12 +0000 phoenix http://blog.vitsco.com/?p=97 So who says your every day food are just for your mouth, it sure can be a feast for your eyes too. Here’s three pasta dishes that we made recently. A bit of artistic inspiration came over me and here’s the result.

Pasta #1


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Food, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/10/pasta-arts/feed/ 0 Cat walk at the zoo http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/07/cat-walk-at-the-zoo/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/07/cat-walk-at-the-zoo/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:19:19 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=2478 Went to the zoo today and tried to visit all of the animals in the Metro Toronto Zoo that belongs to the cat family (Felidae). Here’s a list of all the big cats visited:

Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) Jaguar (Panthera onca) Cougar (Puma concolor) Lion (Panthera leo) Caracal (Caracal [...]]]> Went to the zoo today and tried to visit all of the animals in the Metro Toronto Zoo that belongs to the cat family (Felidae). Here’s a list of all the big cats visited:

  • Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)
  • Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia)
  • Jaguar (Panthera onca)
  • Cougar (Puma concolor)
  • Lion (Panthera leo)
  • Caracal (Caracal caracal)
  • Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
  • Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)
  • Cloud Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)

I think that’s all the big cats in the Toronto Zoo, let me know if I missed any. Took nearly all day to visit all the cats. Unfortunately wasn’t really able to get a good photo for most of them. So here’s what I’ve got for the day.

Siberian Tiger
Siberian Tiger


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Permalink | Tags: , , , | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2009/07/cat-walk-at-the-zoo/feed/ 0 A tale of steaks and tigers http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2007/05/a-tale-of-steaks-and-tigers/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2007/05/a-tale-of-steaks-and-tigers/#comments Sat, 12 May 2007 04:06:14 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=2492 Today right around lunch time at the zoo, the Sumatran Tigers found a few juicy steaks in their enclosure. They were overjoyed with the sight of fresh flesh and I was able to capture some photos that normally I wouldn’t be able to in the zoo, namely tigers actually feeding. Well I let the [...]]]> Today right around lunch time at the zoo, the Sumatran Tigers found a few juicy steaks in their enclosure. They were overjoyed with the sight of fresh flesh and I was able to capture some photos that normally I wouldn’t be able to in the zoo, namely tigers actually feeding. Well I let the photos speak for themselves.

The images after this one is graphical, but at least it was just a big steak nothing more.

Sumatran Tiger


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Permalink | Tags: | Categories: Nature, Photography | No comment ]]> http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2007/05/a-tale-of-steaks-and-tigers/feed/ 0 Bird photography with Canon 1D Mk II http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2006/05/bird-photography-with-canon-1d-mk-ii/ http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/2006/05/bird-photography-with-canon-1d-mk-ii/#comments Fri, 12 May 2006 02:38:06 +0000 phoenix http://awtlblog.vitsco.com/?p=1756 I borrow my friend’s Canon 1D Mk II for a while and trying out shooting bird with this camera. Gave Scarborough Bluffs a try to see if I can test the camera out. The auto focus is really good but being 1D has a 1.3 crop factor while my 10D has a 1.6 crop [...]]]> I borrow my friend’s Canon 1D Mk II for a while and trying out shooting bird with this camera. Gave Scarborough Bluffs a try to see if I can test the camera out. The auto focus is really good but being 1D has a 1.3 crop factor while my 10D has a 1.6 crop factor, I found I lose significant focal length, so much so that I started to use the 1.4x extender on my Sigma 100-300 all the time. But the problem with the 1.4x extender is that is slows down auto focus by a lot and it degrades picture quality. So in the end I think Canon 1D is not really for me. I would rather have a really good APS-C factored DSLR than a 1.3x crop factored camera.

Now here’s the result. First up a few common birds.

To the left Common Grackle and to the right American Robin.

Common grackle American Robin


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