Bird of the evening, the late afternoon, actually

[ginger_55]

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/17104781-L.jpg

With his Partner. I decided to show the romance between the two, good clean stuff, besides, it is not quite as soft as the hard core stuff, I mean that the camera shake is not as bad.

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/17105228-L.jpg

She saw me and left him. He waited and waited and waited, as did I.

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/17104785-L.jpg


Eventually he went to find his love. I caught up with him at the second tree over. He looks very clear here, I think I know what kind of Hawk he is, but you all can see, too.

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/17104792-L.jpg

His love was a few branches over. I thought you might like a view from the back, for ID purposes.

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/17104797-L.jpg


If one of you had been with me, if anyone had been with me, they might have pointed out that it was 5 PM, and I was shooting at 200 ISO. (I put it on that so my shots for the challenge would be nice and smooth. Who knew that I would be shooting birds again.)

Photography by ginger
Canon 300 with 1.4 extender
ISO 200

[Eric&Susan]

Great use of pics to tell your story. I really like the 4th one, great DOF.:thumb


Eric

[Harryb]

Hey Ginger,

Very nice pics. The 4th one is sweet. It looks like a Red Tailed Hawk. Great capture. :clap :clap :clap

Harry

[tmlphoto]

I like #4 as well. The golden lighting is very pleasing.

[pathfinder]

Very nice Red Tail Hawks, Ginger. #1 and #2 still seem soft for your glass. #3 and #4 seem much better. Well done :thumb

[Matthew Saville]

Yep number four is the keeper. At first it looked to me that the others might have been shot at too slow a shutter speed, but then I notices other parts of the images in very crisp focus. (like the leaves in the first shot)

Obviously you've got enough light to keep your shutter speed fast enough, but focus just missed or something. But yeah #4 is tack sharp and the bird is perfectly framed by that out of focus stuff above. Perfect!

-matt-

[jwear]

Nice shots Ginger all go for 4, good group, nice work :clap .red tails here are all in the hill have as yet to get close some day Jeff

[ginger_55]

I just want to say that I don't think #1 is soft, it may be, I will check. I is cropped out, not a huge part of the original. None of the others are cropped, or not much. On #1 the light is different that #4, I had finally remembered to increase my EC, thanks to someone's post yesterday AM. But the darn ISO. I had great shots of one on top of the other, but they were definitely soft. #2 is definitely soft, I thought I mentioned that is was not AS soft, but I wanted to show the two together.

When the birds flew to the other tree I was annoyed, I did not think they were set up as well. I guess I should have thanked the gods above. The light is so much better, I imagine that helped immensely.

I really did not think #1 was soft, or I wouldn't have cropped it that much, or I had others to use, but I will check. I don't use the contrast thing anymore. Might try curves.

Thanks for all the comments, make me think. And didn't someone in another thread mention that light is the important factor. It was here.

ginger

[KimballPhotography]

Ginger~ Great shots!! I LOVE #4...spot on! Lovely series:clap

[Steve Cavigliano]

Nice ones Ginger :thumb :thumb Those last ones are super sharp :clap Good work girl :-)


"Did someone mention that light was important?"

I'd say it was pretty important since that's a big part of what we do. We capture light. I mentioned in another of your threads about trying to see like the camera sees. IMHO, it's all about light (this rule supercedes the "It's all about the food" rule :giggle ). Light is all the camera sees, and in a much smaller range than our eyes. You can shoot the most beautiful subject imaginable and if the light is not right, you probably won't get beautiful results. Conversely, you can shoot the most ordinary subject in extraodinary light and wind up with a masterpiece. It's ALL about the light :):

Good work on these Ginger and thanks for sharing,
Steve