I did it!!

imagesofhim · January 31, 2011

Okay--I've been drooling in these Wildlife threads for two years... Praying for some of Jody's expertise, Ric Grupe's patience, Azzaro's knowledge, Mike McCarthy's skill, Jason Holzworth's perception, and the list goes on & on... Never, not once, have I EVER been fortunate enough to catch a bird, any bird, in the wild, in flight, until yesterday. Okay, so it's a simple Sea Gull taken with my measly 70-200 f/4 L, but look at it... I'm so proud I feel my shoulders pulling back with every keystroke! I know, love is not boastful, but... I LOVE that I was able to do this! Of the 70 or so that I took, more than 10 of them are REALLY crisp and in-focus... This is the best of the day and my best of "real" wildlife (read: non-zoo animal) to date! And... this is 100% SOOC... I was so excited, I didn't do squat to it... wonder what I could/SHOULD do to help it along???? Suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas?

Always open to comments & criticisms and thank you all for helping me feel like I can play and be an "every-once-in-a-while-photographer-of-your-caliber" photographer. If I keep learning and get even more glass, who know what I'll be able to pull off!!

Osprey Whisperer · January 31, 2011

WooHoo. Congrats. Nice capture. If you can shoot a gull...you can shoot any other flying object including a cat shot out of a cannon. *-) Half the battle is BEING THERE. Keep 'em coing.

Lindiwe · February 1, 2011

Congrats indeed!
Lovely image

DsrtVW · February 1, 2011

Careful shooting BIFs can become an obsession. Pretty soon you will be spending more money than a good car on glass to get better shots.
Nice capture good detail.

jackiejay · February 1, 2011

What a great pic you have every right to be proud you did a great job:)

Ric Grupe · February 1, 2011

In a way, I envy you.

I really think that I enjoyed myself more when I was starting out. Probably because I would become so frustrated that when success came it was a higher high than now when I' m more even in my emotional connection to this hobby.

Keep at it!

imagesofhim · February 1, 2011

DsrtVW wrote: »

Careful shooting BIFs can become an obsession. Pretty soon you will be spending more money than a good car on glass to get better shots.
Nice capture good detail.

NO DOUBT! I've already been looking and "testing" the waters with my husband... so far, so good!!!

imagesofhim · February 1, 2011

Osprey Whisperer wrote: »

WooHoo. Congrats. Nice capture. If you can shoot a gull...you can shoot any other flying object including a cat shot out of a cannon. *-) Half the battle is BEING THERE. Keep 'em coing.

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope to get a few hawks this spring!

imagesofhim · February 1, 2011

Lindiwe wrote: »

Congrats indeed!
Lovely image

Thank you so much!!

jackiejay wrote: »

What a great pic you have every right to be proud you did a great job:)

Thank you, too!

imagesofhim · February 1, 2011

Ric Grupe wrote: »

In a way, I envy you.

I really think that I enjoyed myself more when I was starting out. Probably because I would become so frustrated that when success came it was a higher high than now when I' m more even in my emotional connection to this hobby.

Keep at it!

Again, thank you for the encouragement and insight. I can certainly see your point. I think I got to that stage when I was shooting 35mm macro shots.

Harryb · February 1, 2011

Congrats, a first of anything is always a thrill. Good comp, detail and exposure.

imagesofhim · February 1, 2011

Harryb wrote: »

Congrats, a first of anything is always a thrill. Good comp, detail and exposure.

Thank you! I spent the better part of the afternoon playing with it in Lightroom---I'm not finding anything I like better than the SOOC... any suggestions? I've found that if I pull the saturation up, the detail in the eye doesn't look as nice... B&W ruins it completely... Hmmmmm.....

Harryb · February 1, 2011

imagesofhim wrote: »

Thank you! I spent the better part of the afternoon playing with it in Lightroom---I'm not finding anything I like better than the SOOC... any suggestions? I've found that if I pull the saturation up, the detail in the eye doesn't look as nice... B&W ruins it completely... Hmmmmm.....

I don't really have any suggestions on this capture, its pretty darn good as is. The eye stands out OK. You might try to lower the highlights a tad on its shoulder but that is a real nit pick.

Osprey Whisperer · February 2, 2011

Harryb wrote: »

I don't really have any suggestions on this capture, its pretty darn good as is. The eye stands out OK. You might try to lower the highlights a tad on its shoulder but that is a real nit pick.

One other thing I'd add. I know we all like to get our watermark on the image but your watermark is almost as large as the subject (bird). Kind of overpowering and a tad bit distracting. Might consider sizing it based on the subject matter in the image. Could also lighten it and or reduce it in size. Just a thought.

Eia · February 2, 2011

Nice and clear and composition is great! Good - you give me hope! My goal this year is to get a bird in the air. I just received my 300 lens so am anxious to go after some birds!

imagesofhim · February 2, 2011

Osprey Whisperer wrote: »

One other thing I'd add. I know we all like to get our watermark on the image but your watermark is almost as large as the subject (bird). Kind of overpowering and a tad bit distracting. Might consider sizing it based on the subject matter in the image. Could also lighten it and or reduce it in size. Just a thought.

Is this any better??

Eia wrote: »

Nice and clear and composition is great! Good - you give me hope! My goal this year is to get a bird in the air. I just received my 300 lens so am anxious to go after some birds!

You can do it!!! My only advise at this stage in the game... DON' T get discouraged!!!

Harryb · February 2, 2011

Eia wrote: »

Nice and clear and composition is great! Good - you give me hope! My goal this year is to get a bird in the air. I just received my 300 lens so am anxious to go after some birds!

Getting BIF captures is not all that difficult. You just have to have realistic expectations. Don't expect to be ambling down the path and have a bird fly by you as you snap off a fast capture. I've done that but when it happens its more luck than skill.

Find a location that has some activity (landings, take offs, fly bys, etc.). Observe your subjects behaviors: what do they do before taking off; what directions to they fly in when they take off; where do they come in from when they land of fly by, etc.

For fly bys and landings you want to start tracking them before they are in optimal capture range, lock in on them as they approach and take a series of captures as they near you. Before the action starts you want to do a few trial exposures to make sure of your exposure settings and to be sure that you have the right ISO and aperture settings to insure that your shutter speed is at 1/1000th of a sec or higher.

It just takes some practice and the investment of some time. I had a friend , the late Frank Wilson, who was passionate about flight shots. He dedicated a year to getting it down and took about 100,000 shots. By the time he was done he was about the best I've seen at nailing flight captures.

imagesofhim · February 3, 2011

Harryb wrote: »

Getting BIF captures is not all that difficult. You just have to have realistic expectations. Don't expect to be ambling down the path and have a bird fly by you as you snap off a fast capture. I've done that but when it happens its more luck than skill.

Find a location that has some activity (landings, take offs, fly bys, etc.). Observe your subjects behaviors: what do they do before taking off; what directions to they fly in when they take off; where do they come in from when they land of fly by, etc.

For fly bys and landings you want to start tracking them before they are in optimal capture range, lock in on them as they approach and take a series of captures as they near you. Before the action starts you want to do a few trial exposures to make sure of your exposure settings and to be sure that you have the right ISO and aperture settings to insure that your shutter speed is at 1/1000th of a sec or higher.

It just takes some practice and the investment of some time. I had a friend , the late Frank Wilson, who was passionate about flight shots. He dedicated a year to getting it down and took about 100,000 shots. By the time he was done he was about the best I've seen at nailing flight captures.

Thanks so much for the great advice. This was somewhat the situation I was in when I caught this shot!

Osprey Whisperer · February 4, 2011

imagesofhim wrote: »

Is this any better??

!

I think so. You posted your photo to be viewed, not your watermark, correct?

imagesofhim · February 4, 2011

Osprey Whisperer wrote: »

I think so. You posted your photo to be viewed, not your watermark, correct?

Yes, I re-watermarked the photo and posted it... I've been toying around with my watermark for the past 6 months... It's still not exactly right.

korandoke · February 4, 2011

quite difficult, as you are experiencing
a bank ahead

kind regards,
Korandoke

imagesofhim · February 4, 2011

korandoke wrote: »

quite difficult, as you are experiencing
a bank ahead

kind regards,
Korandoke

Thank you! (Plus, there were about 100 more around this one!)

I did it!!

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