First attempt at birds

[Stagecoach]

Rita,

I think you have just earned a prize for the greatest improvement made in one day Well done.

Only comment is that they are framed a bit tight as Dan has mentioned but that's easy to sort next time if you remember it.

Grahame

[Rita]

Thanks Grahame. I am quite new to all of this digital photography and many times I see what I want to capture but don't quit know how to go about it. The tips that were given to me yesterday were extremely helpful.

[chauncey]

OK Rita...those are a huge improvement. Most all of us use ducks to polish our technique.
More questions though: how high is that SS and ISO, are you handholding, do you have live view with histogram available?

[Rita]

Hi Chauncy, yes, ducks were much easier to get For my settings I used SS 1/1000 and ISO 640. I do have live view with histogram available. Don't have a clue how to read/utilize a histogram yet. That is something I need to learn.

[chauncey]

I do have live view with histogram available

That's a great leg up...while in live view, altering your settings, push that histogram toward the right without actually touching the right side, then revert to viewfinder to shoot, unless...
you have the ability to use auto focus while in live view???
Additionally, a SS of 1000 is a couple notches faster than necessary...reserve that if they're in flight.

[jprzybyla]

You did good Rita. I agree with Dan regarding the framing or cropping of the second and third images. Shooting a lot and deleting is part of bird photography. If I keep 20% I have done well.

[Rita]

Thank you Chauncey, I will play with that. I agree on the SS. Before I went to the lake I played a little more around the bird feeder with the 1/1000 but when I went to the lake I didn't change it.