How far away is your subject?

[morgan in austin]

How far away is your subject? And how can you tell?

I know that "the tree just beyond the path over the fence" is medium far, and "the reeds at the corner of the pond" is further - - but have no idea whether that tree is more like 50 or 100 metres - - etc . Walking to it in a straight line, dragging a tape measure, would be a pretty messy process.

What distances do you find suitable for really good shots, as opposed to identifiable but non-artistic shots?

[mmdnje]

In my limited experience, good shots regularly at up to 10 meters , so-so 15-30 meters, but I usually digiscope small birds, so bigger birds can be OK at longer distances. The picture of the hawk was shot at ~75meters. You can calculate distance using The digiscope calculator provided by J. Turberville at
http://www.jayandwanda.com/digiscope/digiscope_calc.html
Hope this helps. Jose

[morgan in austin]

Interesting calculator, but I certainly don't know enough to be able to use it. Rather than figure out my Bayer Mask and my Rayleigh factors, I might as well just measure some standard distances and build my own custom calibration system.

[digitalbirdy]

a BIG pace when striding out is roughly 1 meter. So get out there and stride the distance to the tree in question. You will then be able 'guestimate' other distances.

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

How far away is your subject? And how can you tell?

I know that "the tree just beyond the path over the fence" is medium far, and "the reeds at the corner of the pond" is further - - but have no idea whether that tree is more like 50 or 100 metres - - etc . Walking to it in a straight line, dragging a tape measure, would be a pretty messy process.

What distances do you find suitable for really good shots, as opposed to identifiable but non-artistic shots?
As below I think you can ds at any length given the correct light and patience...

Reed bunting 3 metres. King fisher 150 metres

[Neil]

If you go to Google Earth you can use their Measure Feature to measure the distance between two points. I've used it down to 25 metres from a restaurant that I digiscope from to a rock in the harbour. They both show up on Google Earth. Neil.
ps 70 metres is about as far as you can go and show any detail , after that it is just for id/record purposes.

[morgan in austin]

If you go to Google Earth you can use their Measure Feature to measure the distance between two points. .

Brilliant.

(unfortunately I can't use it as my street, house, fence, and even pond did not exist 3 yrs ago and their satellite images are 3+ years old. Still - - eventually they'll update and your idea will work)

[morgan in austin]

Brilliant.... satellite images are 3+ years old. .

Mapquest.com has a fresher satellite image, which I was able to graft on top of the google image, so now I can measure all my backyard sightings. Amazing.

[Stuart R]

Mapquest.com has a fresher satellite image, which I was able to graft on top of the google image, so now I can measure all my backyard sightings. Amazing.

Hi

Just a thought and I havn't a clue if this would work as I'm not a golfer, but would these golf "thingies" which measure the distance from ball to flag be any good - I'll leave it to the golfers out there to reply!

Cheers

Stuart

[erniehatt]

I know for sure that one particular type wont work because you have to sight the top and bottom of the flag to get a measurement. Not sure about some of the later ones.
But you can buy Ultrasonic distance tapes that work to a degree, not overly accurate but close enough. Ernie