Local fishing pier

MikeAldrich

Hey all, so I've been motivated and inspired by this forum to go out and take advantage of our local wildlife down here in SW Florida. This is my first attempt at capturing some birds and I'd love to get some of your feedback. I took these with my D200 and 70-200 vr. I took advantage of the local fishing pier and the overly friendly, or I should say, hungry birds that hang out there.

I did really light edit's on these and loose crops, so it's more or less straight from camera. I didn't want to get too crazy with the post stuff here. I do have to admit that I find some of the background stuff distracting, like the poles and landmass. Should I try shooting with a smaller DOF or maybe applying a blur filter in these situations? Any comments and advice would be extremely appreciated.


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basflt

great pic's

but , yes , make DOF smaller AND blurr background

that brings out the subject

and
clone out other unwanted stuff in background , esp in #1

MikeAldrich

basflt wrote: »

great pic's

but , yes , make DOF smaller AND blurr background

that brings out the subject

and
clone out other unwanted stuff in background , esp in #1

Thanks, I usually do shoot at a smaller DOF but I noticed a lot of folks shooting at or near F8 , so I wanted to give it a try and see if it would give me sharper images. Thanks for the advice, I definitely agree with #1.

basflt

MikeAldrich wrote: »

Thanks, I usually do shoot at a smaller DOF but I noticed a lot of folks shooting at or near F8 , so I wanted to give it a try and see if it would give me sharper images. Thanks for the advice, I definitely agree with #1.

its difficult , because not every scene is the same

the trick is to get the bird in focus and BG out of focus

goodluck & see u around

Harryb

Those are outstanding results ofr your first attempt at bird captures. Its great to hear that the forum motivated into going out and getting those images.

MikeAldrich

Harryb wrote: »

Those are outstanding results ofr your first attempt at bird captures. Its great to hear that the forum motivated into going out and getting those images.

Thanks for your kind words Harry! Your images are defiantly a huge part of that inspiration, as well as all the other amazing photographers that participate in the wildlife forum.

IraRunyan

Outstanding captures for your first wildlife post. Other than the sign in #1, I don't think you have a big problem with the backgrounds, in fact many times the background helps to document the environment in which you found the subject.

I look forward to seeing some more of your work........

MikeAldrich

IraRunyan wrote: »

Outstanding captures for your first wildlife post. Other than the sign in #1, I don't think you have a big problem with the backgrounds, in fact many times the background helps to document the environment in which you found the subject.

I look forward to seeing some more of your work........

Thanks Ira! I certainly appreciate your feedback. I also followed your link to the florida wildlife & nature photography forum, looks like a pretty cool site. Is it yours? I'll have to sign up and do some exploring later on.