Sandhill Cranes C&C requested

[rtbaum]

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Randy,

The first has significant camera shake; slippage in a vertical direction during the exposure, personally I would bin such a shot and believe me I do still take them myself

The second shot also has camera shake, not quite so obvious perhaps and this time in a horizontal direction.

The EXIF on these shows 400mm on a D90 (so 600mm FF equivalent), shot at 1/60s, now I don't know if your lens has VR, but even with that, you can only expect about 1 in 10 to be acceptably sharp at that sort of shutter speed and focal length if shot handheld. You don't say if you used a tripod and remote/self timer release, but I suspect not, given the different directions of 'double' images on grass.

I would suggest you have a read of this post for gaining better feedback; How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

If you tell us more; e.g. the EXIF data (for those that don't know how to read it), plus which lens and whether or not a tripod was used, it'll save us all guessing and half of us getting it wrong and giving unnecessary 'advice'.

Back to the photos;
The exposure is probably a good compromise, I see you used +1 EC to counteract the bright sky against the brids in shadow.
Notice, however, how in the second shot there is eye detail visible in the pair with their heads in front of the trees, but the proximity of bright sky has robbed us of that in the other two birds? Personally, I avoid shooting under 'bright backlight and subject in shadow' conditions these days, as I know the results won't 'pass muster' under analysis on screen - although I might take/keep some for ID purposes.

Composition is OK, but I appreciate if the birds don't co-operate (or you don't spend long enough shooting them), you can't always get the 'more ideal' compositions like; not having them looking out of frame and stacked one behind the other giving a three headed appearance.

All I can suggest is you just keep at it, with shooting wildlife I find some days I'll be lucky and others, I'll come away with nothing

Don't give up, that's the main thing.

One last suggestion, may not be relevant (but hey ho); if these were shot from a permanent hide (I forget the US term, sorry), invest in a bean bag to rest the lens on, I find it easier than manhandling a tripod, especially if your camera has a vari-angle LCD and you can sit comfortable watching that.

Bottom line; the birds were too far away with bad lighting, so the result was never going to be good.
The lens is f/5.6 capable and you shot at f/8 and 800iso, might have gained a stop on both by shooting at f/5.6 and 1600 iso, giving 1/250s and a better chance of avoiding the shake, however, you may (since these also look cropped) have needed NR for that.

Hope that helps,