No earth shattering news here but wanted to briefly write about this anyway. When shooting, the most desirable position is to get eye to eye with your subject. Of course this isn’t always possible but it should be the goal. Now that’s not to say you shouldn’t take the photo if you can’t get into position. It just isn’t always possible. Here are 2 images, both taken handheld with a Canon 70-200 f/4L non-IS with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 1D MarkIV body. Effective focal lengths 127.4mm – 364mm in terms of 35mm camera. That’s still the standard we use. Not sure when that will die out. Hopefully soon. I mention the camera and lens combo to show that you don’t always need one of the bazooka lenses to get good shots of birds. If I had the 500 no photos could have been taken shy of head shots. Here are 2 images, one from a fairly steep angle and the other sitting at the water’s edge. I think you’ll see an immediate difference.