Egret in Flight: Ebrunner recently posted a winning entry that was very similar to these in terms of composition, so I was reluctant to post these and appear to be copying. These are...

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

Ebrunner recently posted a winning entry that was very similar to these in terms of composition, so I was reluctant to post these and appear to be copying. These are truly my images, and all I can say is I got a bit lucky with the shots in that the focus on the moving birds is better than my former attempts.

Please feel free to make suggestions. These have been cropped quite a bit. The second is cropped to include the reflection.

Thanks,
Vicki

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Tom O Loc: Wisconsin

I like your pictures and feel like posting mine quite often but am reluctant to do it for fear of coming across like a copy cat or trying to one up another member.

I think that posting yours separate from the other post and referencing the original post is fair enough.

Tom

oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.

I like the pics, if you take a photograph of almost any bird especially in the digital era getting a truly original photo is almost impossible, when I take my pics i concentrate on the job in hand and not that it may look the same as the one posted two days or more ago. Your pics are original to you and that is all that matters.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

Tom O wrote:

I like your pictures and feel like posting mine quite often but am reluctant to do it for fear of coming across like a copy cat or trying to one up another member.

I think that posting yours separate from the other post and referencing the original post is fair enough.

Tom

Thanks so much Tom. I appreciate your point of view.

Since I'm trying to learn, I try to post images that might present an opportunity for feedback. Even my mistakes can be an opportunity for others to learn something, and hopefully we'll all gain something from the effort.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

oldmalky wrote:

I like the pics, if you take a photograph of almost any bird especially in the digital era getting a truly original photo is almost impossible, when I take my pics i concentrate on the job in hand and not that it may look the same as the one posted two days or more ago. Your pics are original to you and that is all that matters.

Thanks oldmalky. You are so right.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I shamelessly post photos of the VERY SAME birds as littlebiddle, since we frequent the same areas around Yakima - and I don't give it much thought that his are usually more technically perfect :)

Yours are very pretty images and I can appreciate the joy you experienced in seeing this beautiful bird and capturing it.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

Linda From Maine wrote:

I shamelessly post photos of the VERY SAME birds as littlebiddle, since we frequent the same areas around Yakima - and I don't give it much thought that his are usually more technically perfect :)

Yours are very pretty images and I can appreciate the joy you experienced in seeing this beautiful bird and capturing it.

Thanks for taking time to look and comment Linda. I always appreciate it.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Vicki, there are three things that would help these photos:

1. Noise reduction
2. Sharpening
3. Reduce the highlight levels.

The first one especially is a heavy, heavy crop. It is difficult to get any resolution from it.

Work on getting closer. Find areas where they are feeding or roosting. Approach very slowly. Use a blind or shoot from the car. It is a real challenge!

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Tom O wrote:

I like your pictures and feel like posting mine quite often but am reluctant to do it for fear of coming across like a copy cat or trying to one up another member.

I think that posting yours separate from the other post and referencing the original post is fair enough.

Tom

Tom, don't be reluctant to post! The one thing you shouldn't do is post your photos to someone elses topic unless invited to do so. Just start your own.

As one of the moderators of this special section, I am always willing to give consructive criticism. People will never improve unless others help to identify the problems and suggest solutions. I invite all to join me in this.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

birdpix wrote:

Vicki, there are three things that would help these photos:

1. Noise reduction
2. Sharpening
3. Reduce the highlight levels.

The first one especially is a heavy, heavy crop. It is difficult to get any resolution from it.

Work on getting closer. Find areas where they are feeding or roosting. Approach very slowly. Use a blind or shoot from the car. It is a real challenge!

Thank you birdpix. I really appreciate your input.

I think I understand the noise reduction. By "sharpening" are you referring to post processing sharpening or just getting much better focus (I use auto focus because I'm not that good)? What do you mean by "reducing highlight levels?"

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

Nice job of catching the BIF. It's quite a challenge catching these little guys in the viewfinder. I agree with birdpix, try to get closer to your subject so you won't have to crop the image so much. It helps to move very slowly and use camouflage of some kind. Keep them coming.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

Gary Truchelut wrote:

Nice job of catching the BIF. It's quite a challenge catching these little guys in the viewfinder. I agree with birdpix, try to get closer to your subject so you won't have to crop the image so much. It helps to move very slowly and use camouflage of some kind. Keep them coming.

Yes, getting closer would be ideal, but my camouflage would have to look like water in this case.:-) There was quite a bit of pond between him and me. I may need to get a longer lens to solve the "closer" issue in cases like this.

Thanks so much for looking and your suggestions. I appreciate it.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Your shots look well,the white bird contrasting with the deep blue water.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

photophile wrote:

Your shots look well,the white bird contrasting with the deep blue water.

These white birds are tough. I have much to learn about camera settings before I'll get the kind of results I want, but you're right about the white looking good against the blue. I was lucky the sun was out.

Thanks for looking and commenting. I appreciate it.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

vicksart wrote:

These white birds are tough. I have much to learn about camera settings before I'll get the kind of results I want, but you're right about the white looking good against the blue. I was lucky the sun was out.

Thanks for looking and commenting. I appreciate it.

I was given some good advice about setting the iso lower,such as 200 if you expect to shoot white birds,helps keep more detail,not letting parts of the bird get "blown out". Seemed to help.