Birds 2012

[mvanrheenen]

Thanks, actually I'm quite proud of him...

And so you should, these and those on flickr are great images! Well done!

Mark

[Dr. Harout]

An old shot with a700 + Sony 75-300/4.5-5.6

I'm not good yet at birding...

[Argonaut]

Dr Harout - that's not bad at all. You must have taken it at sunset or sunrise to get the light underneath. Usually sky shots like that blow the highlights or darken the shadows - or both, on a bad day. I suspect that is a European Bee-eater, but the chest color is hard to make out. Light blue? Blue-green?

Back to Tanzania, Part 469: The two Black Kites were lurking at our picnic area, getting ready to steal our food. They are good enough at it that you should eat in the car; one of our group ate outside and they stole a chicken leg from him. Also, these two are potentially two species. Right now the one on the left with the yellow bill is a subspecies (M m parasiticus) and the one on the right with the black bill is the nominate. But, if they ever get split, I have the evidence for having seen both! a580, Sigma 400, 1/1260, f5.6, ISO 800.

This Yellow-billed Oxpecker is seen in its native habitat - large plains mammals. Oxpeckers clean parasites off their hosts, and are sometimes enthusiastic enough to draw blood. Some say they are not averse to going for the blood itself, and some animals (e.g. elephants) don't like them around. Having one in your ear digging out earwax doesn't sound like fun to me either. a580, Sigma 400, 1/1600, f8, ISO 800.

The Black-crowned Tchagra is a shrike. Lots of shrikes in Africa - I think there are 27 in South Africa alone. We in North America get 2, one of which is rare. More shrike-chow in Africa I guess. a580, Sigma 400, 1/500, f11, ISO 800.

053_Black Kite (Milvus migrans)_120226_DSC01319_a580.jpg

(171.53 KiB) Downloaded 1908 times

054_Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus); Common Zebra_120226_DSC01327_a580.jpg

(199.59 KiB) Downloaded 1908 times

055_Black-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra senegalus)_120226_DSC01348_a580.jpg

(188.8 KiB) Downloaded 1908 times

[Dr. Harout]

Thanks Argonaut, and yes it's a European Bee-Eater, the color is green (blue-green maybe).
Wonderful shots you're linking. The last one is my favorite.

[Greg Beetham]

I haven’t had a chance to have a close look at the Bird thread lately. Nice work Dennis, Mark with the juvenile vs. adult Wagtail was great work, and Argonaut’s splendid African bird photos, (interesting example of the Black Kite subspecies). Doc with the Bee Eater, (they often sit on the power wires outside the house here but I’m not overly keen on bird sitting on wire photos myself and I never tried to photograph one in the air as they move very fast so that’s a good shot).
I didn’t leave any comment on your brothers photos Marcell (I liked his Avocet and Spoonbill photos especially), not much point really if he can’t read English, but you might want to oversee and help him with the way he does his colour profile (converting to sRGB and including ICC profile etc.) and downsizing work, there are some outline artefacts around some of the images. The KM7D and AF75-300 is doing good work still. (The internet can’t interpret Adobe RGB, it usually screws it up and leaves squiggly lines around the edges)
Greg
Ps A Spoonbill flew over home late yesterday…no camera at hand.

[sury]

It has been one of my struggles to catch a bird in flight (BIF). I was inspired by the photos and learned from the wise on the forum
and practiced the tips suggested here. These are my most recent and most successful attempts. All C&C is greatly appreciated.

With best regards,
Sury

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsu ... .jpg[/img]
DSC26137Aviary by BigSury, on Flickr[/url]

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsu ... .jpg[/img]
DSC25954 by BigSury, on Flickr[/url]

[Birma]

Hi Sury - that first one is great - not sure if it is a take off or a landing, but the wing feathers fluttering and the unusual position of the bird are really nice

[Dr. Harout]

Both with 70-300 G

[Birma]

Very nice Doc - I espcially like the vulture shot - it looks a very handsome bird - great detail and colour on the feathers.

[aster]

Nice one, Sury. : )

Maybe a crop can bring the bird closer for observation...or is this already cropped?


Hi Dr. Harout, : )

Beautiful images both. The vulture is indeed impressive with a alot of nice details. I wonder how they satisfy the vulture's need for fying high and going after a prey. (I assume they are shot at at zoo.)

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[sury]

Birma,
Thank you. That one was landing when I took it.


Yildiz,

Thank you. Regarding the second one, no it is not cropped. Do you mean something like this?

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsu ... .jpg[/img]
DSC25954crop by BigSury, on Flickr[/url]

[mvanrheenen]

Hi Sury, those are very good BIF shots. It's hard freezing those creatures while in mid air and retaining focus on them. I'm sure the gull shot can be cropped to better effect. Try cropping some of the grass and top of the trees away too. Also, by reducing highlights in the bird, the plumage will come out much better.

I've taken the liberty to try to recover some of the plumage as an example. Hope you don't mind. The quality of the image isn't good because I don't have the original, but I think you get the idea where I'm going with this.

Knipsel.jpg (150.84 KiB) Viewed 3625 times

Doc, those shots are really good. Very detailed an pleasant to look at. I agree with Birma about the vulture. I has an almost majestic stance in that image. Thank you for sharing!

Mark

[sury]

Mark,
Thank you for taking time to do that edit. Let alone not minding it, I welcome it. Now I see what Yildiz meant cropping it closer. Very edifying indeed. Let me experiment with the images based on the inputs received. Did I say I love this forum.

With best regards,
Sury

[mvanrheenen]

Glad I was able to help you a bit. The crop I did is too tight, it was just to demonstrate the recovery of the details in the subject. You should leave a bit of the surroundings in the frame. It will add to the context of the image!

Mark

[Greg Beetham]

I like the Egret shot Sury, and the crop of the bif Gull was an improvement.
Interesting subjects Doc and nicely taken.
Greg