Post your best bird shots!

[Joel Eade]

Jayson,


Brendan gave you the basic idea, you need an attractant (bird food of some variety and/or a water feature).


Then you need various perches (usually branches you can find on the ground or trim fresh) and something to hold the perch in the best position. I use some cheap plastic christmas tree holders, but you can use just about anything like old tripods or mic stands or something you create out of cheap stuff.


You're pics will benefit greatly if you keep the sun at your back and pay attention to eliminate distractions from the background.


Also your results will greatly improve if learn how to get proper exposure...not as easy as it sounds, I see alot of underexposed images and this kills the detail/sharpness of an image.


All of this, of course, has been done and there are some nice books on the subject. One the best I've ever seen is : http://www.alanmurphyphotography.com/


Look at this guy's stuff and read his blog.


Joel

[TucsonTRD]

It's not stripped out, so you can just save the image and check (or use an EXIF firefox plugin). The goldfinch above is:


40D, 420mm, 1/400, f/6.3, ISO-400. Aperture priority + 0.7 EC. Center Weighted Average metering.
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Thanks for bringing up that there is a EXIF plugin for firefox. I didn't know. This will come in very handy.

[Jayson]

Thank you Brendan and Joel for your insight. I really appreciate it. I will have a look at the website and see what I can come up with. Just went to Lowe's and purchased a feeder, so now time to construct. Hopefully the snow melts soon so I can get the darn thing up and running.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Canon 40D &amp; 500 f/4L IS, f/4, 1/3200, ISO 200, manual exposure, hanhheld. This image was brightened 1 stop in DPP due to my settings for shooting great white egret.


Larger version http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=10761592&amp;size=lg

[Joel Eade]

Nice work Nate. Good composition, eye contact is cool. It looks nice and sharp. I like the water dripping off the fish.


Joel

[JJphoto]

this is something I'v been dreaming about, great catch Nate! and I like the water dripping off the fish too.

[Brendan7]

Here is one of mine:


Canada Goose


Canon 7D and 300 f/4L IS USM @ f8, 1/500, ISO 400. Manual Exposure, Handheld.


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I also saw this bird today: looks like a hybrid between a mallard and something else... Joel, Nate????


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C&amp;C welcome.


brendan

[Joel Eade]

I saw this Red Tailed Hawk dive off of a fence post next to the road this morning....he let me get a few shots before flying off with his breakfast.


Canon 40D, 300mm 2.8L......





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[Joel Eade]

Brendan,


I like your Canada goose portrait...I believe you could really make it pop if you adjust the levels, brighten the eye and sharpen it a little more....that second one...I don't know, I'm not really up on my waterfowl identifications.


Joel

[Joel Eade]

Brendan,


I hope you don't mind...I worked on your Canada goose.....what do you think? The biggest problem is that the whites are blown out and I couldn't recover any detail there, otherwise it's a cool shot.





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