Donald, Can your camera focus on just one spot? Check your manual. If it can, try focusing on the birds eye or at least it's head. This will sharpen your photos of birds. If it can't spot focus, Try to compose the shot so the birds head is the closest thing to the camera, second best so the bird is the closest object to the camera. The auto-focus usually will pick the closest thing to focus on. That's a very nice shot, except the focus is off. Please don't take offense, I'm just trying to help. I've been helped in many ways by UHH and just trying to pass it on.
It's me again, I just checked your shooting information. The Nikon P530 is a nice camera and capable of making the necessary adjustments. Here's some recommendations: 1. Shoot in A-mode 2. You do have the capability for spot focus (this shot was taken to focus on the whole scene and not the bird and that's why the bird isn't in sharp focus). 3. The shot was taken at -1.0 exposure compensation (ec.) which made the exposure dark. Generally you should be at 0.0 ec. Your lake shore sunsets came out beautifully, because then you can use the whole scene to let the camera decide on the best over-all focus. Also, shooting at -1.0 ec works well for bringing out the color of the sunset. But, those two settings don't work well on bird shots and close-up photography. If you have any questions, please feel free to respond on your post, or send me a private message. Have a happy New Year. - John
Sweet little chickadee, Donald, and thanks so much for taking the time to offer great advice, John!
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