Tony Britton Loc: California

Here's a few photos from my Canon SX50 pigeon collection. Every photo was taken hand-held and every photo is completely free of cropping. I hope you enjoy viewing these beautiful birds!

Tony

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

How can you make Sky Rats look so pretty?

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Tony, what camera settings did you use. The photos are excellent, great detail, skilled background control ... but photos are just photos without sharing conditions.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

Excellent as always

jerrylh Loc: Texas

Fantastic !

Tony Britton Loc: California

Hi robertjerl,

I've never heard them referred to as such, but that is a pretty funny term!

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Tony

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Great series Tony.

Tony Britton Loc: California

Hello dpullum,

I mainly use Manual and Shutter Priority Modes on my cameras. One of the key factors in my photography involves the use of very fast shutter speeds. The vast majority of all of my bird & wildlife photographs, including these pigeon shots, end up with shutter speeds of 1/640 second or higher. And these are for "still" birds, mind you! This use of fast shutter speeds ensures the best possible image sharpness by reducing "camera shake" when taking hand-held photographs, which is how all of my bird & wildlife photos were taken.

These pigeon shots were taken using Shutter Priority Mode because not only do I have control over shutter speeds in this mode, I have access to "Exposure Compensation" adjustments. It's use is perhaps the single biggest contributor to the "look" or "mood" I want to achieve in my photography. This requires generous amounts of available sunlight to work with and is chiefly responsible for the black backgrounds you see in many of the images I've posted in these forums.

With adequate sunlight directly on the subject, I can decrease the exposure compensation values anywhere from -2/3 and lower to not only darken the environment around my subject, but also eliminate "blown-out" highlights on white feathered birds. By decreasing the exposure compensation values I can also intensify the colors and textures in the composition. These pigeon photos were all taken at a municipal wharf and the backgrounds you see is ocean. The velvety texture of the water is a result of the use of negative exposure compensation values. It changes everything and is how I get the "look" I'm after. The dreamy "bokeh" effect is always enhanced the farther away the background is from the subject. If you can find my cormorant and heron images here on UHH you'll see good examples of this. The ISO values I use are typically ISO80 to ISO100.

Since I prefer portrait style photos I find that using Center-weighted Average metering yields the best results. This metering method "determines the average brightness of light across the entire image area, calculated by treating brightness in the central area as more important." I can't remember the last time I had to crop an image, and I use the "Focus and Recompose" method to take my photographs. For example, when I take my portrait shots I first bring the eye of the subject into focus and while continuing to hold the shutter halfway down I then recompose the shot, usually "corner loading" the subject within the frame and then fully pressing the shutter.

Bottom line, while I prefer using Manual & Shutter Priority "Modes" there remains no definitive or repetitive combination of camera "settings" that are ever used between shots or even on different days, for that matter. Each shot is determined by the mood or look I desire in the photograph and is confirmed in the LCD. I determine all of my final "exposures" purely by visual means and spin the dials and push the buttons on my camera until I see what I want! I never think "camera settings" first!

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Tony

Tony Britton Loc: California

Here's a few more hand-held, crop-free images!

Tony

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

More excellent shots Tony.

Tony Britton Loc: California

Thank you very much, Earnest!

Tony

Tony Britton Loc: California

Thanks very much, RWCRNC!

Tony

Tony Britton Loc: California

Thanks for looking and commenting, jerrylh!

Tony

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

More good shots.

Sky Rats: back around 1970 at Cal State Univ Los Angeles we had a campus overrun by pigeons. Some guy who had been breeding them got tired of the hassle and turned a couple hundred loose on campus. They continued breeding, there was an estimated 1-2,000 on and around the campus, and most considered that a low ball number. A student from back east, New York I think, called them that, said it was what everyone where he came from called them. It stuck! The raptor population in the area went up and they were so well fed they could barely fly, didn't seem to make a dent in the numbers. Those things would land right on the outdoor tables and snatch food people were eating. The tables, chairs, benches, etc had to be hosed off multiple times a day. Everything suggested either didn't work or got turned down because it was "mean", "cruel" or might hurt them. One professor was said to be trying to develop a birth control pill or the equiv. to put out with feed. A few times campus security caught guys with air guns using them for target practice. (25% Vietnam Vets in the student body, tended to be direct in their methods of controlling pigeons)

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you for the details Tony... you use conditions very close to my "flower settings" except flowers do not fly and I can get close. I am going to concentrate your details in my note book along with the UHH reference address.

For flowers, I set Manual, f-8, 1/400, ISO 80, on-board flash. Power of flash controlled by distance or tissue or in a couple of times finger in front of part of flash. In the brightest of sun light there is not enough time to show much back ground.. it is dark. At 1/400 hand shake, gusting wind, nothing maters all is fixed at a 400th of a moment in time... like Twilight Zone TV.

Your work is a realistic fine detailed recording of work of nature. Too bad you missed the Passenger Pigeon. Interesting story about the "sky-rats" thanks of the history.

I must confess when a youth, some one mention, with a sigh, that he fancied a girl who had hair the color of bronze. I wondered why her hair was green, the color of bronze in the park where we were. I did not have the nerve to ask why.