Compared to the latest rounds of photos

Maestro

these are sub par. They really do not compare to what you guys have been posting lately. Awesome! I only wish someday to be as good. Anyhow, this is what I am seeing around the whole homestead.

First off, my Red Tailed Hawk showed up again after not being able to find him/her. From the distance I was at, I can't tell if this is the female or male. :scratch I was about 75 yards away @400mm and a crop on the second one. It was in a different place about a mile down from where I usually see it. I decided to take a picture of it because of the different perch. I have never seen it in a juniper. It has always been old oaks, pecans or utility lines.





On the way home I saw a scissor-tailed flycatcher. This photo came out soft and I am not sure why. I shot about ten pics but they all came out soft. Would a 7.1 aperture do that when you are at the end of your focal length? I bumped up the aperture because of the harsh light. My iso was around 200 and my shutter speed was 400 I think. I have noticed that my shots tend to blur more the smaller my aperture when focusing on distant objects.
Soft...I know.


I had some shots of much better perches but they aren't presentable.

Other shots...

Brown headed cow birds female and male bathing. This was shot at ISO 1600. I am pretty proud of my camera for being able to shoot at that ISO with minimal noise.



A sparrow series...








A female red winged blackbird


Great fan tailed grackle


European Starling with ubiquitous branch in the way.


Wait a minute, what's that noise? :huh

A roof rat at Maestro's, crap!
Where are my hawks and owls when I need them? :dunnoThis shot was taken about 9:30 at night with my EF-S F2.8 100mm Macro lens at F 2.8 and ISO 1600. I had to use Noise Ninja a bit on this one to clean up the noise.

Here is a furry rat for Harry....


Enjoy!

dbaker1221

nice series Maestro, I like the flycatcher alot

raptorcaptor

Nice series! I also like the scissor-tailed flycatcher photo best! Unless I'm shooting in really bright sunlight i usually shoot at iso 400.

ShepsMom

Good job on little bird, i really like that black one. You captured black really nicely. Squirrell came out good too!

jwear

raptorcaptor wrote:

Nice series! I also like the scissor-tailed flycatcher photo best! Unless I'm shooting in really bright sunlight i usually shoot at iso 400.

iso 400 in a nikon is as loud as a rock and roll band nice shots and you know Harry love that rodent

riddim_maker

I won't mind living in your neck of the woods:D
That's a wide variety of birds and critters, and all in one afternoon.
Good work, especially on the Grackle and Flycatcher

Ric Grupe

Those look like Chipping Sparrows. The ones by me are one of the more easily captured since they tend to allow you to get closer and perch longer. Keep at it, you will get better opportunities.:D

Maestro

Thanks everyone. Real life is not affording a whole lot of opportunities to take pictures so I have to take them when I get them.

JillG

Hi, Nice series, I like the interaction shot with the cowbirds, all that flapping and jumping around, ( never was able to capture one of those myself ) and I never knew that grackle existed. What a great tail ! Thanks for sharing.
Jill

zoomer

First of all don't apologize for your photos. There is nothing wrong with these shots. Nicely exposed and sharp enough.
It looks like you had a great time shooting these.
Photos don't have to be gallery quality to be enjoyed by others.
Everyone has a learning curve and each person has their own standards of what is good enough for them.

Nice shots and I enjoyed the stories and info you included.
Keep em coming.

Harryb

First thing is to never compare your shots against others. It ain't a competition and you will always find someone with better shots (at least I always do). You want to compare these shots with your own earlier efforts. If they are an improvement then you're on the right track.

These are a pretty good set of shots. The softness of the shots qre probably due to a too slow shutter speed. I'm assuming you were at 400mm for the flycatcher shot and a shutter speed of 1/400 sec can be a problem unless you are shooting off a tripod.

Maestro

Harryb wrote:

First thing is to never compare your shots against others. It ain't a competition and you will always find someone with better shots (at least I always do). You want to compare these shots with your own earlier efforts. If they are an improvement then you're on the right track.

These are a pretty good set of shots. The softness of the shots qre probably due to a too slow shutter speed. I'm assuming you were at 400mm for the flycatcher shot and a shutter speed of 1/400 sec can be a problem unless you are shooting off a tripod.

You're right Harry. I'm not really down on myself, but seriously, the quality of the pictures lately has been outstanding! And that is a good thing! I am picking up tips and hints as we move along.