Bluebirds, Turkey Vultures, and Falconidae Oh My

jeremyandemily

Had a chance to go to a local bird hotspot with Jeff this weekend and see how "the pros do it." He was nice enough to let me borrow his "Dust Trombone" zoom lens with IS but I think I should have had a better tripod with me since some of my shots are kinda soft. This was my first birding adventure for the sole purpose, so I welcome C&C to apply my next outing.


GIF (goose in flight)


Bluebird on his home


Mom & Dad Are Home


Turkey Vulture Catching Thermals (with crop)


I forgot what Jeff told me this was.... (can anyone help me ID)


Mr. Bluebird Watching Us Work

Looking forward to seeing what Jeff was able to capture with his rig.

Harryb

Except for the softness the shots are good. The mystery bird is a kestrel.

There's no exif data on the pics so its hard to be exact about the reason for the softness. I would guess your shutter speed was too low.

jeremyandemily

Thanks, Harry. The soft shots were shot at 1/2000 and the sharper ones at 1/3200 or so. I thought that 1/2000 would be fast enough to compensate for tripod jitter. Plus, the lens had IS.

I made each pic able to link back to smugmug gallery where EXIF info is located. Is there a better way to post images here?

Thanks again.

dbaker1221

the last shot just kinds looks like the focus missed..but i'm just guessing.
looks like you got to see alot of birds.

BTY I happened to be looking in some of your galleries this morning. you have some nice photos. I'm thinking you do alot of hiking . I know I wouldn't be doing that snowshoeing.

jeremyandemily

I really think my problem was missing the focus. What is "best practice" for not missing focus like this again? I have my focus "spot" set to the middle of the screen so that for surprise BIF shots, I can get the bird on center quick and snag the shot. I think the problem is that when I have more time to set-up the shot with good framing, my subject is not center (Rule of 3rds).

What's the "better way" that I should be striving for? Maybe moving my focus point for each shot? That's just one more thing to adjust pre-shot. Ughhh.

jeremyandemily

dbaker1221 wrote:

BTY I happened to be looking in some of your galleries this morning. you have some nice photos. I'm thinking you do alot of hiking . I know I wouldn't be doing that snowshoeing.

Roger that. Been backpacking and taking shots with a P&S for years now. Just moving into the DSLR world and learning "real" photography for the last 2 months.

jwear

the kestrel is the best but is overexposed a little