By the bay

house1999

I am still relatively new to photography, and just beginning to shoot more to get better. Here are some shots taken with a Canon 1D2N and 70-300mm IS USM. The sun was setting so I had to use high ISO thus the noise. Any comments and suggestions to help me improve my photography is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

NorthernFocus

First off, you picked a good subject with the great blue heron. Very photogenic. In the first image it would have helped to have tried to get either higher or lower for the shot so that the bird's head/beak weren't lined up right with the horizon. The conventional wisdom is to compose such that the subject is looking into the frame. You can break that rule but in this case it would have been better IMO. Also the horizon is crooked which is distracting.

The second shot is a pretty good in-flight shot but the vertical crop doesn't work for it.

The third shot is just too noisy. Maybe you could convert it to a painting effect in photoshop. Also cropping a little off of the left so the bird isn't so centered and is flying into the frame a little.

The last image is my favorite of the set. You might try cropping some of the water out. The sky is what makes the image.

house1999

articblooms wrote:

First off, you picked a good subject with the great blue heron. Very photogenic. In the first image it would have helped to have tried to get either higher or lower for the shot so that the bird's head/beak weren't lined up right with the horizon. The conventional wisdom is to compose such that the subject is looking into the frame. You can break that rule but in this case it would have been better IMO. Also the horizon is crooked which is distracting.

The second shot is a pretty good in-flight shot but the vertical crop doesn't work for it.

The third shot is just too noisy. Maybe you could convert it to a painting effect in photoshop. Also cropping a little off of the left so the bird isn't so centered and is flying into the frame a little.

The last image is my favorite of the set. You might try cropping some of the water out. The sky is what makes the image.

Thanks for the great advice. I will try them out. One of the problems I have with shooting birds in flight is tracking and focusing them. Even at 300mm, a big bid like the heron is a small target to keep on the focus point from where I was standing (It was as close as I can get without falling into the water). The low light was no help either. Most of my shots from this set was out of focus. Besides practicing, is this just a matter of getting closer or getting a longer lens so that I have a bigger target to track? Advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

NorthernFocus

I still have trouble tracking BIFs. If you have somewhere to go like a beach or marina where seagulls hang out you can practice on them. Also if you hunt and/or shoot skeet, you may want to look into a stock type mount like a BushHawk. I made one for myself and it really helped my keeper ratio.