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So, ya'all are tired of the same old sunrise seascapes, even the funky planes rarely raise a eyebrow nowadays To be honest, it can be very easy to grow bored with the same stuff but more importantly I think it can often stifle ones creativity (of which i have little to start with)

So its time to branch out and try some different stuff, now that is not necessarily as easy as it seems, without going to drastically new locations, buy a new lens etc it can be difficult to inspire oneself, so, i have decided to keep going to teh same places- well actually i don't have a choice, i have to go to some of these places - however I am going to try and take a different view on the same places...go for different things

Here are a few for critique, all very very different from one another...

I took alot of shots to nail this version, I knew what I wanted the shot to look like, it just took 20 different stalks and mounds to get it



birding is gotta be in ya blood i reckon, its alot of luck in my opinion, I spent a good hour stalking these freakin' little wrens, i got a couple of the more colourful blue red and the one with teh red collar, but compositionally and pose wise this little bland brown one was teh best



Now, this one cost me a sore head (fing big hail stone to the head), chasing storms is not my game, however this one merely rolled on top of me so thought, thats some nice lightning why not try and get a shot of that.

check the exif on this - man i got reflexes fastener than chuck norris...
and, it took me 3 shots lol..

Great to see you are playing with something different. I do like the wren...and yes I agree that birding has to be in the blood.....

Bird photography is difficult - very difficult - especially for tiny birds like wrens or finches. If you ignore the fact that they a constantly flitting around for a moment you can see that even if they were stationary you'd have problems. Being small means you need a lot of magnification which drives down the depth of field. As you can't get close, you need a longer lens which means you need a faster shutter speed. The faster shutter speed means a larger aperture and that eats into the limited depth of field you may have had. To be able to get a smaller aperture you need more light, e.g. full sun, and this harsh lighting will detract from the image. Basically, you are screwed before you even start. Now, remember the fact that they are constantly flitting about... what hope is there?

While this shot has great composition and nice bokeh, it is let down by not being super sharp around the eye. This could be the lack of depth of field at f/5.6, slight movement of the bird (to move out of focus) or the resolving power of the lens.

I think birding is one of those areas where better equipment can make nearly as much difference as good technique. Really long super sharp lenses do help a lot.

Great shots as usual Gerry!
Persistence definitely paid off with the first shot.

I've got a real challenge for you... See if you can retrain your muscle memory to type 'the' instead of 'teh' all the time.

No, seriously...
http://www.dslrusers.com/search.php?keywords=teh&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Wink wrote:I've got a real challenge for you... See if you can retrain your muscle memory to type 'the' instead of 'teh' all the time.

lol

Gerry - nice work - I really like the first - thats a great shot - I really like the feel of these types of images - just looking at it gives me a nice warm and peaceful summers day feeling. I take it you were reasonably close to the stalk to throw everything else oof?

The second is OK but as other have already said I wouldn't envy trying birding (especially with those small flitty fast buggers) - was that with the 300/4 with the 1.4TC?

Very cool sky in the last - darker and more ominous might have made it even more interesting.

Wink wrote:I've got a real challenge for you... See if you can retrain your muscle memory to type 'the' instead of 'teh' all the time.

No, seriously...

lol!

however I am only on teh first 13 pages, i may think about it when i clock up 20 pages

after that i will redesign the keyboard or even remove it from computing altogether to revolutionise the stagant way we input data into them

woot, did you notice teh 'the' in the last sentence! I did not even have to correct that one...oh well shame about teh in this line...next time, i promise..

Wink wrote:See if you can retrain your muscle memory to type 'the' instead of 'teh' all the time.

Forget it, it's too hard. Believe me, I've tried. I ended up configuring an automatic text substitution in OS X

Regarding the bird shot - I really like it. Very often the background tends to ruin these kinds of shots but in this case it conspires to make great composition. I might take the sharpening back a notch to make the image look a bit more natural. It isn't going to help where it's needed anyway (around the eye as Andrew said). But that's just a personal preference.

Cheers
Steffen.

biggerry wrote:after that i will redesign the keyboard or even remove it from computing altogether to revolutionise the stagant way we input data into them

Too late ... Siri is already here. Soon we won't have a keyboard. I am still hanging for mind control....  BTW Amazing bird shot!! Lovely compo.

Love the bird shot! Great composition and well captured

ATJ wrote:While this shot has great composition and nice bokeh, it is let down by not being super sharp around the eye. This could be the lack of depth of field at f/5.6, slight movement of the bird (to move out of focus) or the resolving power of the lens.

I think birding is one of those areas where better equipment can make nearly as much difference as good technique. Really long super sharp lenses do help a lot.

I have dabbled my eyes on bird pictures over the years and there are some very impressive peeps out there with some serious gear getting some seriously good shots, i will probably never own any real high end stuff some i am content with slightly less sharp shots. I think it is dof field which gives the slight OOF on the eye, refer image below, however it probably could be recovered a bit more with some unsharp love.

cheers for the feedback atj.

Steffen wrote:I might take the sharpening back a notch to make the image look a bit more natural. It isn't going to help where it's needed anyway (around the eye as Andrew said). But that's just a personal preference

good point, i think revisiting this image would be a wise move, thanks steffen

Steffen wrote:Forget it, it's too hard. Believe me, I've tried. I ended up configuring an automatic text substitution in OS X

no teh's in this post

PiroStitch wrote:Love the bird shot! Great composition and well captured

surenj wrote:BTW Amazing bird shot!! Lovely compo.

cheers, i worked hard for the money and burnt some serious frames to get to it

surenj wrote: Too late ... Siri is already here. Soon we won't have a keyboard. I am still hanging for mind control....

hmm, mind control, man imagine some the crazy sh$t that would end up in my computer, on second thoughts i better stick with the keyboard.

Remorhaz wrote:Gerry - nice work - I really like the first - thats a great shot - I really like the feel of these types of images - just looking at it gives me a nice warm and peaceful summers day feeling. I take it you were reasonably close to the stalk to throw everything else oof?

The second is OK but as other have already said I wouldn't envy trying birding (especially with those small flitty fast buggers) - was that with the 300/4 with the 1.4TC?

Cheers Rodney, the summery light airy feel is exactly what I wanted, fortunately there was enough sunset light to give me something to work with. This was taken with the 55mm micro, quite close to the stalk, on my elbows and knees (thats a sight to see)

The birdy was with the 300 f4 and TC1.4 as you correctly noted.

I like all 3 shots but again like the composition and simplicity of the first with the shallow dof and 3 simple and defined primary colours of gold and green on a blue background takes my eye.

It reminds me that the wheat is starting to turn gold up here now and i shouldn't be slack in attempting to capture it this year.

biggerry wrote:...probably could be recovered a bit more with some unsharp love.

Try the sharpen tool if you're using CS5. The PS team say it's the best sharpening feature in PS with Smart Sharpen second and Unsharp Mask third.
They say the sharpen tool will save photos that are slightly OOF.

I like the bird, but also the lightning.

On second look, do you have #1 with a longer stalk?? I feel it's slightly cut off at the bottom. Nice tones though.

Wink wrote:Try the sharpen tool if you're using CS5. The PS team say it's the best sharpening feature in PS with Smart Sharpen second and Unsharp Mask third.
They say the sharpen tool will save photos that are slightly OOF.

It's a stellar capture so if the sharpen doesn't work, I'd set aside 45 minutes and draw the eye on the bird. The compo is beautiful and you might not get this lucky in 45 minutes in your next attempt.

ATJ wrote:Bird photography is difficult - very difficult