Post your best bird shots!

[Joel Eade]

Joel,
The background with the gradient came out really nice - the green adds a little punch of happiness to it.

The bird looks great too!


Arnt

Thanks Arnt! I enjoyed yours as well, especially the 1st Egret image, the 2nd swallow and the Raven. Well done. I bet it's not easy to focus on a swallow in flight!

[Joel Eade]

Hairy Woodpecker, from the backyard this evening

1DX
700mm
tripod
manual mode, spot metering with +1 stop of exposure compensation
ISO 3200
f/5.6
1/800

[ahab1372]

Thanks Arnt! I enjoyed yours as well, especially the 1st Egret image, the 2nd swallow and the Raven. Well done. I bet it's not easy to focus on a swallow in flight!

Thanks Joel,
keeping the swallows in the viewfinder is already difficult enough . I was lucky that they stayed somewhat high above the ground and were flying slowly (slow for a swallow that is) against the wind for extended periods. Once they go into a dive and hunt lower to the ground - no chance. The 5DIII did a fairly good job with the focus if the settings are right and as long as I kept the AF points on the bird. I did tweak case 6 a bit for that.
The images are heavily cropped to about 2MP. A longer lens ( I used the 70-300L) would help with the pixels on target, but I guess it would be even harder to keep the birds in the viewfinder.

[ahab1372]

Hairy Woodpecker, from the backyard this evening

1DX
700mm
tripod
manual mode, spot metering with +1 stop of exposure compensation
ISO 3200
f/5.6
1/800

Joel,
I know you pay a lot of attention to the background - but to you actually plan the gradients, maybe by adjusting perch and camera height?
Looks great, even better than a unicolor background.

[Joel Eade]

Joel,
I know you pay a lot of attention to the background - but to you actually plan the gradients, maybe by adjusting perch and camera height?
Looks great, even better than a unicolor background.

Yes....that is what I have been trying lately by using the dead leaves in the woods and the green grass of the lawn, adjusting the perch height and camera angle

[Joel Eade]

I am gong through my memory cards and cleaning things up for spring.....this was a shot taken a few weeks ago....I wish I had not clipped the wings (I was too close for 500mm) but I like the reflection in the ice so I thought I would keep it. What would you do, keep or delete?

1DX
500mm
ISO 640
f/7.1
1/4000

[Mark Elberson]

I am gong through my memory cards and cleaning things up for spring.....this was a shot taken a few weeks ago....I wish I had not clipped the wings (I was too close for 500mm) but I like the reflection in the ice so I thought I would keep it. What would you do, keep or delete?

1DX
500mm
ISO 640
f/7.1
1/4000

Keep :-)

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[ahab1372]

Keep - it's just too funny. I would even crop in on the bird. The bird slipping is kind of funny, and makes the picture more than the reflection does, in my opinion

[conropl]

Keep

Pat

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[Kayaker72]

Also keep....