Birds 2011

[mvanrheenen]

Doc, you're guess is as good as mine. I suspect the a-typical warm weather for this time of year resulting in buds and blossoms in bloom. I hope it's not the result of earth wide climate changes...

Thanks for the kind words!

[Greg Beetham]

Pretty good shot of a Blue Tit Mark, I see you have discovered how to make a bit of noise ha ha, if that one isn’t cropped how far away from the bird were you?
Greg

[Birma]

I really like that Blue Tit Mark - quite an unusual pose I think, with that head on look. I like the contrast of the thorny surroundings with the bird. Not sure if the grainey-ness is distracting or not.

[Greg Beetham]

I think Mark might have got miffed because I mentioned the noise, actually as one bird photographer too another I really don’t care about a bit of noise, you takes what you get, I’ve posted noisy bird photos myself, it’s the subject that’s the important bit and because I know how difficult it really is to even get a small bird photo.
I was going too say based on his reply about how far away he was that with flash it’s possible too have a much shallower light depth than the focus depth and sometimes it’s actually better to be a bit further away and zoom in, then you can sometimes get the flash depth to agree more closely with the focus depth…if your lucky.
Greg

[mvanrheenen]

Hi guys,

Yes, the image is cropped. I was standing about 8 meters away.

As Greg, I don't mind a little noise in my pictures. I don't mind cropping them either. I don't know why exactly, but I find most photographers too sensitive about cropping and PP. I don't care, as long as I get the results I want. I don't like too much PP myself, so I use PP only for getting the sensor dust off my image, crop if needed, add a little bit of sharpness and change the exposure as I like to ETTR for my birding.

The noise in this image is probably due to post processing I guess. Did a +0,5 exposure, 50 sharpness and +2 saturation as the flash made the yellow a bit flat. I also corrected the steel eye in the eyes of the bird. I shot on ISO 400 with my a580. I use Photoshop CS 5.5 btw.

Greg, don't know what "miffed" means, but if it's another word for "pissed", I am not! Don't mind critique, it only helps getting better. And the nice thing about an opinion is that I don't have to agree I'll take a look at PP'ing the noise a little. Maybe a Gaussians Blur will help

Mark

[Dusty]

Here's a hawk that was in the yard last month. I couldn't figure out why he didn't fly off when I approached, until I saw what lay at his feet.

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As you can see he was challenging me a bit.

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He calmed down when he saw I only wanted pictures.

Dusty

[Greg Beetham]

Ha ha looks like he thought you wanted to knock off his squirrel, great shots Dusty.
Greg

[Birma]

Cracking shots Dusty . That's a big bird as well. I don't think the local raptors here would have been so brave.

[Dr. Harout]

Dusty, admit that you were after the squirrel...

[aster]

Hi Mark, : )

The colours of the Blue Tit are goregeous. The bird looks almost alien in this particular composition.

Thanks for sharing.


Hi Dusty, : )

When a great opportunity walks in, it certainly walks in to make a spectacular entry. Gorgeous shots and the expression on the Hawk's face is priceless. Poor squirrel though.

Thanks for sharing.

Yildiz