Looking at the meta data others have posted, your shutter is fast enough and the f stop was 5.6 which is fine. The issue can be gear and that's the best it can do. This is a hanging feeder so it swings back and forth as soon as the bird lands on it. You'll have to have a fast shutter, maybe faster. If the feeder was stationary that would help. Another thought is that your focus should be on continuous and try shooting in bursts. Then maybe some shots will be in focus. Birds do move fast. Your camera has to be able to focus fast as well.

Try shooting a static object to see just how sharp your gear can work. If the shots are sharp then you know it's about the camera's focus ability which can be overcome by simply manually focusing on the feeder (turn off auto focus) and then shoot at F8 but you have to use a tripod and release cable. Now you just wait for the bird and press the release (not ever looking through the camera as you have it set up!). Enjoy

Maybe a different approach is needed here. Mainly to see exactly how good your gear can shoot so test it. Use a tripod, get a similar area you want to capture and test shoot. Try different f stops as often the middle f stop performs best with any lens. For me it's F-4 and it's very sharp. I like say the tail of the bird going out of focus slightly so that the shot makes you look where I'm looking. Maybe that's what the bird is eating (in it's beak) so I would focus there but if you use a high enough f stop it will capture a range in focus and you should be fine (it will have the head and body in focus but the tail dropping off). Because the bird is perched, you don't need a very fast shutter speed, just 1/125 or faster. Experiment with your gear. Shoot in raw if you can as its far more forgiving than jpegs. With a tripod and finding out what f stop works best, I'm sure your captures will improve. Those with photo editing skills will naturally gravitate to shooting raw. If you don't want to edit your shots than go with jpegs. I work in the commercial printing field so we have to know all this post editing stuff. Enjoy!

Thank you for you kind comments Joe.

Normally shooting in less light means dark shadows. First shooting in RAW we can take dark pictures and often bring back the shadow detail but using HDR you can combine pictures which gives a much better shadow area, often with no noise at all. I've taken some sunset shots and using HDR I'm able to shoot very dark sunsets and able to see all the detail on the ground (a farm picture with pond and ducks) though I do keep the ground dark ... as I saw it. Certainly you don't have to shoot this way as it requires a tripod to setup but often doing all this setting up makes us think more about the shot and to take the right shot (and to show up early to get the right light). I remember a time when my family was on vacation and I was taking a sunset shot that I thought was very good, packed up and started walking away only to look back and see that the shot improved so much that I ran back for the final and best shot of that event. Most folks are eating while I was waiting for the right light, standing and hoping for that perfect light. Most of the time it isn't there or it's there and no clouds so no shot. Then it happens and everything comes together. This is where the persistence factor is very evident. The bad shots become practice and then the great shot appears and you have that wonderful picture. I do hope that showing these shots and talking about technique will inspire others to wait it out and see the light change and find the shot they really want. The gift is to be able to capture exactly what you see (and Not be creative and fabricate a picture that wasn't there). Looking back at this shoot, I didn't even know I caught the sunset in the middle of the fountain but what a neat discovery working in Post Editing.

Or just use a lens hood if you have one. This often happens from shooting into the sun. Unless you want a back lit glow, put the sun to your back when you shoot. It's just lens flair.

Love to hear you go at it Gene51. I'm behind you all the way.

I've followed much of what Gene has mentioned in all his posts, especially recently for me, about using a color picker to go to new levels controlling color in my pictures. It's been exciting, especially to win taking difficult shots. RAW is the way to go if you're after higher levels of quality (Dynamic Range in shots). Readers, you need to listen to this guy, he's a high end shooter and very knowledgeable but also not a point and shoot photographer who does "no post processing." This is the real point. If you are not up to doing post work, this isn't for you. I embrace it, love photography, enjoy using computers and always want to improve and explore. It's definitely been worth it for me to go to RAW.

Sorry, I meant that this feature, when you buy Photoshop, will be used all the time.

Well, if you don't use Photoshop, this certainly is a feature that could be used all the time. I only wish we could buy it outright but alas, you can only get it as a subscription so you never own it. Follow this guy on YouTube and see what can be done with Photoshop. He's my mentor and I've learned so much from Unmesh (Dinda). What a great find to learn more.

The issue here is ... if you turn slightly to get another shot, you're looking at a different light (maybe your auto WB made a bad judgement call) and get a color cast in that shot. Green casts are often from fluorescent lighting. This can happen all the time and does happen to all of us. Best thing, you got the shot and it can be fixed with a little post computer work. For very simple adjustments, you could also try a photo filter in Photoshop to correct the green cast, but it's a down and dirty fix with no real exact correcting but it will look better.

Do try the Photoshop fix I posted above using blend mode/divide. It really can fix any tinted shot ... as long as you have one spot in the shot that should be pure white (any blown sparkle of light will do to work off of). Most versions of PS can do this. Watch the video and see for yourself. It's amazing. Even if you don't have Photoshop, watch the video and see what professional software can do. But do understand that when you get into color correcting work, you need to calibrate your monitor first so your viewing true colors in the first place.

Thanks for your feedback on this subject. I really enjoy hearing about what professional photographers went through to get the shot. This is a fine example. Modern gear is so small and light. My cameras have live histograms so I can see the exposure before taking the shot and other modern cameras have focus peaking. Now it seems like you need more specialized lighting then cameras and lenses and look at the mono-post the camera is on in this picture ... what a beast! What fun it would have been to have worked with you in all your adventures. Maybe you should write a book to reflect on the history of Photography from your experiences. It would be a great read. We are moving forward in a time where our kids know nothing about film or vinyl records or even a choke in a car and we have such memories of them all.

LOL That is funny. Spell checker did not rescue me! I really need to slow down answering this feed.

I did actually have exactly this same effect taking a sunset shot. Closer examination of my lens might have prevented it all but I was in a hurry to cook and run to catch the evening light with camera and tripod in hand.

Nice shot of a neat tree and some crazy sky.

It makes one wonder if lightning contributed to the trees down fall? I remember one tree on the farm that was at the apex of the hill and got struck by lightning three times and you know what they say, three strikes and you're out. Well, on the third strike the tree literally blew apart. I was just glad not to be near that tree during any storm.

Nice set Sue. Was really surprised to see the Great Blue Heron eating the catfish. And that fish is pretty big!

I think Linda has it!

The shot with spots are from shooting at the sun (where the sun can touch the front of your lens) and it's just spots that show up on the front lens with the help of hard light. I experienced the same thing and cleaned my front lens and it was gone. Sensor dirt is always in the same place, on every picture. I used a blower, then with clean Q-tips and distilled water wiped a quarter of the lens then followed with a clean Q-tip to clean out the water away (all done genitally). Do the same for the other quarters of the lens and your done. When this happened to me I bought a sensor cleaning kit and then wondered how the heck this happened on a camera I don't often change the lens! The sensor was fine after all. I get this when shooting sunsets and forget to check my lens before heading out. It's easy to fix.

Nice action in those surf shots. Can you tell us more about what you shot them with and if you work in jpg or raw? My biggest lens is a 200mm full frame but on my ASP-C body it's a 300mm. Just wondering if I could try my hand at this type of water action pictures? My main problem is I live on the East Coast, USA!

Does anyone think that VR produces a lag time in taking pictures? Shooting some soccer games with VR on, I ended up turning it off and raised the shutter instead (and ISO) and got closer to the action (where the ball was in flight and still in the frame). Now this was with a Nikon but still wondering if turning on all this in camera and in lens is creating a lag in shooting time?