Please don't feel that way about your shots! Keep shooting and look at the shots of others that you like and try to duplicate how the shot was made. Look at where the light is coming from. When I started too many years ago I always looked at and into the eyes of portraits to see where the lights were placed and what type of lights. For info on bird photos go to "Flickr" and look at the settings that were used to obtain the shot. If you don't have that super duper long lens that is carried on a trailer behind the car out to all the exotic places with the colorful birds don't worry. You can get great shots right in you backyards or in a city park where birds don't mind people and in fact they like people even more that feed them. Study your own shots and if you feel that something is not how you thought it would be see what you need to change to get there. One thing you have to understand, Gene's birth was very hard on his mother, he was born with a 4x5 Speed Graphic with a flash attached held tightly in his hands. Get out as often as you can and over time you may be surprised at how you improve. Have fun at what you do.

Thanks, Ellie!

You may not be satisfied with some of the shots you've taken, but you have some control over what happens next.

Part of it has to do with the gear. There is a relationship between quality of gear and quality of result. The price paid for gear is not always a clear indicator of quality however.

Today you can get a good clean used D800 or D800E for around $1400, and a good clean used Sigma Sport 150-600 for $1200 and start taking some truly stunning images, with a decent tripod and head, or even a monopod right away. If you work out regularly at a gym, you can even hand hold it. The combination weighs around 8 lbs.

The next component is networking - find others who do what you want to do, and try and hang with them. Photo clubs are a really great place to start. There is always a bird/wildlife photographer in the mix, and because they are members in a photo club, they are likely to be happy to share. In NYC there is a group of birders that send out tweets (how appropriate), identifying unusual or migratory birds that happen to visit several parks in the city - Riverside, Central Park, Bryant Park, Tompkins Sq, Trinity Churchyard, etc. There is a large enough network that I get as many as 20 tweets a day during the height of the migration.

Next is time investment. You need to be patient. You can get lucky and find 40 eagles before you get out of your car. But more often you will need to wait, sometimes for hours, before a single one shows up.

Observation - understanding the habits and behaviors of your subjects, which way they will be facing when landing, hunting, taking off, etc, and the time of day they do these things - will help you be at the right place at the right time.

I am looking forward to seeing some great shots from you pretty soon!

Here are a few recent shots taken with a D800 and the Sigma Sport, hand held. You can come pretty close even with a D610, though you won't be able to crop as much to get the same sense of intimacy. Small birds are definitely the hardest to shoot - they change positions quickly, and their heads are constantly in motion. But perseverance does pay off eventually.

Please don't feel that way about your shots! Keep shooting and look at the shots of others that you like and try to duplicate how the shot was made. Look at where the light is coming from. When I started too many years ago I always looked at and into the eyes of portraits to see where the lights were placed and what type of lights. For info on bird photos go to "Flickr" and look at the settings that were used to obtain the shot. If you don't have that super duper long lens that is carried on a trailer behind the car out to all the exotic places with the colorful birds don't worry. You can get great shots right in you backyards or in a city park where birds don't mind people and in fact they like people even more that feed them. Study your own shots and if you feel that something is not how you thought it would be see what you need to change to get there. One thing you have to understand, Gene's birth was very hard on his mother, he was born with a 4x5 Speed Graphic with a flash attached held tightly in his hands. Get out as often as you can and over time you may be surprised at how you improve. Have fun at what you do.

Thank you, Gene. I agree with all you have said. Unfortunately, because of a serious muscle disease, I can no longer hold that heavy gear. (No amount of exercise will help)
Another issue is cost of some of the gear. I do buy refurbished when I can.

Therefore, I have to practice and follow all your other advice and suggestions using what I currently have: a Nikon d5500 with Nikkor 55-300 lens. I will continue to keep trying to improve. But gosh....your shots have set the bar really high! But will be fun to try to reach it.

Thanks for the comments. Good photos is a lot more than pushing the button. Right place at the right time is a lot of luck. That said, you improve you luck by traveling to places with known bird populations. Excellent glass is necessary, and maybe most importantly, knowledge of your gear so that you can make adjustments quickly and get the shot off. As to the comment about hand holding a big lens; I am 76 years old, not in great shape, but active. My right hand holds the camera body and I brace my left elbow on my chest while my left hand supports the lens. That way my arm does not have to lift all the weight, some is transferred to my chest. I did upgrade to the Canon version 2 of that lens from version 1 because it is a better lens and much lighter than the old one. The other thing is that you can let the camera/lens dangle on the strap and just lift for a shot, so it is not so tough.
Bill

I love Yellowstone, and we were heading there last summer, but I rolled my ATV in colorado and busted up my shoulder and ribs. So when we could travel, we headed for home. I am pretty much back to normal. As to hand holding, I don't do that to be "macho" cause I am not. I learned to hand hold a big lens by going to Bosque del Apache, and I simply can not hit birds in flight using a tripod. So it became handhold or no photos. So I learned to shoot and rest. It is not as hard as you think it is. If you have not been to Bosque del Apache, you need to go. I would recommend a workshop with a buddy of mine, Doug Brown (dougbrownphotography.com) and you will learn to hand hold and get more fab photos of BIF that you even dreamed about. I have been twice and am planning on about the first of Dec. in 2018 if all goes well.
Thanks,
Bill