Is this a 'Best Shot' ?

[Pat]

Hi ! Thought I would give it a go and send in a photo taken earlier this year with my Sony A700 with a Minolta 300mm f4 G lens+1.4 converter, taken at f6.3, 1/160 secs, ISO 800, on a tripod in the RAIN. I think it shows very well that you can successfully mix the new with the old. It certainly gave me a buss the first time I saw it on the computer.

Pat

[David Kilpatrick]

You just need to clone the rain streaks to make a bit more rain, and remove the dust blob (I'm surprised that has shown at all with such a long lens, so maybe it is actually just an out of focus perfectly circular dark dot!). Nice colours and if this is the entire frame, effective use of the combined focal length.

David

[Dr. Harout]

Though I agree with DK, the pictures is quite beautiful.

[Pat]

David, Thank you for your comments. The rain streaks don't really show up very well in such a small image here but when full size on the computer screen or when projected they are very clear and the bird even has raindrops on his back. As for the frame size, I did crop a little all the way round the image just to make the chaffinch stronger in the frame, but not much, as the lens combination got me in pretty close anyway. I have used this lens for a couple of years now the on both my Minolta 7D and now the Sony a700 and just love the clarity and quality of light it captures as shown here. The Sony does do better but then it does have a few more pixels to play with and the bonus for me is, it is really just the next Minolta.

Yours Pat

[Pat]

Dr Harout, Thank you for your very kind comments regarding my photograph of the Chaffinch. I think that the quality of the light captured was from my experience quite out of the ordinary and makes me realise that I am going to struggle to produce more the same. Again thanks.

Yours Pat

[Greg Beetham]

That's a nice crisp shot considering the conditions, in my experience you have to have an element of luck to get those little tweety birds, they don't usually hang around for long.
Greg

[springm]

You have a wonderful muted color set here that impresses me by its harmony. Composition wise I would be tempted to remove a bit of the wood on the right side and clone a strip of the background on the left, maybe even doing so a tiny bit on the top to get the bird off center and remove the bigger of the reddish parts of the wood. Strengthening the rain streaks as David suggested would definitely bring further improvement.
This is a really strong picture and well worth the work to fully show its potential

Regards - Markus

[marktuma]

Lovely shot, well done on capturing it before the subject flew off again!