Well done Joe, maybe a hair less exposure would have been optimal but there isn't much for hot spots. Nice and sharp and well placed in the frame. We don't have this bird so I will just have to enjoy him here! Well done.
Thanks Paul. These are so common in the Florida marshes that I stopped shooting them unless there is something special. So today I decided to shoot some in flight. To control the blinkies all were exposed at -1.0 EV and then the exposure raised in post processing in Adobe Lightroom 4. Easy enough to back off the exposure. I always struggled to shoot birds in flight, new system today made it easy.
Well if I came to Florida I would likely look like an idiot running around like a kid in the candystore! Guess they are about like our Mallards. Can't see water without 20+ lol Glad to here you can back it off some, you don't need much, there is just a couple small spots that have no detail and are a little bright.
Very nicely sharp Joe. I think you could probably crop a bit tighter in the second and third photo but they're fine as they are too.
Really nice images Joe, particularly as they were shot at the bird's level!
The background is a little 'strong' in the last one; but I don't suppose you could have done much about it.
Good sharp action shots.
I think they are beautiful shots Joe, especially #1. I might have burned down that
background a bit to emphasize the bird a bit more, but it's still a great capture!
Well done Joe, send some of them up my way love to give them a go.
Joe, very nice shots. I particularly like the second one. Getting the definition in the feathers adds a great deal to the image for me. I agree that the background is strong, but there is little you can do about that. You have to take the shot where the critter is hanging out.
Here is the way my camera was set up that made shooting these birds a snap. Normally I shoot in aperature priority for birds and wildlife, shutter speed set to a minimum of 1/1000, aperature of f8 or f11, and automatic ISO with a range set between a low of 100 and a high of 1600. The change that I made was setting the shutter priority to a shutter speed of 1/2000. When approaching a bird I thought would take flight I pre-focused on it and swithched from aperature priority to shutter priority. With the camera pre-focused it was easy to find the bird in the view finder and track and pan with it. If this helps try it, it worked for me. Once again thanks all for you comments and suggestions.