DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

First, it has been some time since I have posted here on UHH as it's been a very busy 2023 for me. Finally picked my camera up again for a more serious effort to shoot what I love best - Birds.
I met a local Meetup photography group at our local park lakes. Hope you enjoy.

Green Heron

(Download)

Green Heron & Reflection

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Parrot of many names: Mexican Green, Red Crowned Amazon, Green Cheeked Amazon...

(Download)

Double Crested Cormorant

(Download)

Osprey

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Osprey - the one that got away.

(Download)

Osprey - Got ya this time

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Osprey - Time to eat.

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joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

You and that osprey both make what you do look easy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Excellent set, Daniel!

Happy New Year!

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Pretty set

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Welcome back. Nice set.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Some very interesting shots here but the one of the cormorant is the only one that is a good photograph.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

Interesting comment coming from someone that doesn't post much but commentary. But hey, to each his own I guess.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I stopped posting because my posts lead to no interesting discussions and I think emojis or simple one or two responses were thoughtless and useless. Several other people complained of the same thing and encouraged viewers to express why they thought the way they did. Such discussions help people like myself grow as photographers. Emojis simple stroke the ego. Too many of these threads seem to be rah-rah sessions with little interest in dissent.

If you wish, I go through all your pictures and tell you why I responded the way I did.

Since I was not learning anything from the pictures I posted, then perhaps I could help others. I do not apologize for this. This should provoke an interesting discussion.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

OK let's take it from the top. First Photo Gallery and Sub Birds are historically "safe places" where photos can be posted without without criticism, except from the occasional troll. If you want critiques, post single images in the Photo Critique Section. Let's talk about your post. Overall it's an above average set. Colors are correct and focus is sharp. Subjects are going about their daily lives. I will assume all the shots are post processed. Remember these shots are yours not mine and the only on you have to satisfy is you.

No.1 I would clone out the leaf cutting across the Heron's breast.

No. 2 Not knowing your PP skills, I would like you to tell me if the reflection is real.

No. 3 The parrot is sharp and not over processed. If it were mine I would add a highlight to the eye in PP.

No. 4 Even you know that's the best shot in the set.

No. 5 A run of the mill Osprey BIF. Nothing special there. Technically well done. Again an eye highlight would help

No. 6 Nice action shot it tells a story. Focus right on, water droplets and red gills on the fish help with the action.

No. 7 Another action shot nicely in focus

No 8. Another run of the mill Osprey with fish shot. Technically well done but nothing exceptional.

This took me about 20 minutes to complete. That's a lot of time and effort. A "Well shot" response would have given you the same information about the technical aspects of your post. If you have specific questions about about shots in your post, then post them individually and ask for comments.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Curmudgeon, you aced this. This is exactly the kind of discussion I like seeing. One can really learn from this. Thanks for taking up my challenge. For the large part, I agree with you but here are my comments. Please feel free to respond or not.

#1 Agree about stem being in the way. Would have cropped it so that the bird were more centered. I would have to play with it to show what I would have preferred.
#2 Same as 1. The reflection does not interest me so I would have cropped it out. Those stems ruin the image and I would not have taken time to remove them and their shadows. I would not have shown either. Both are nice and sharp.
#3 Do not like the cropping and having the back of the parrot being so prominent. That striking head deserves much more attention. Not the right "pose" for this beautiful subject.
#4 Really stunning. So refreshingly sharp. BIF's are really difficult to get right but this one has it all, almost. The wing position is great. You see the majesty of this bird. Look at how the face pops. Background is not distracting but could have been cropped in a more interesting manner. I would have added a slight negative vignette to get the bird to pop more. Definitely worth printing and hanging. A picture to be proud of, not the others.
The rest. Wonderful action shots thanks to the high shutter speeds. However, their poor focus ruins all of them. They should have been as sharp as #4. Like I said, BIF's are hard to get right. You might want to check your set up to see why the sharpness is off. The first four show you can get sharp pictures. Perhaps the autofocus missed the mark or your depth of field was too shallow.

End of story.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

I wasn't posting my photos here to enter a contest and certainly wasn't posting here to be critiqued. I posted them to share with the group so they might enjoy them but apparently this group is more about the criticism than the enjoyment. Now that I know what it's all about - thanks but no thanks.

I thank everyone else for your thumbs up and kind words. I'll take emojis over snarky comments every day of the week.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Lesson learned. If anyone does not want critiques on postings, then please say so politely in the original post.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

I apologize. I didn't pay enough attention to the origin of the post I replied to. I thought it was a request from you. Now I see it was from abc1234. I would never have made a response like that unless asked to by the OP.