egret, not as good as dixies

[jwear]

next time out i take spray paint

[jwear]

next time out i take spray paint wrong one i think this one is better sorry

[bfjr]

Nice one :thumb. There are some things good be better (as always :D), and the bird guys (you know who you are), will come by I'm sure and offer great tips !!
I wanna know where in L. A. did you find it??:scratch

I just found this place by my house:

www.ballonawetlands.com (http://www.ballonawetlands.com)

[Steve Cavigliano]

Jeff,

I agree that the 2nd one looks better :thumb :thumb It looks sharper and I can see more detail. :clap :clap The first one looks kind of soft :dunno


It also looks like you were shooting in tough midday lighting. That makes it even rougher to capture a white bird. Especially, if he's in mixed lighting like your 2nd shot. No digital is going to have enough dynamic range to capture the entire range on these type shots. If you can use a fill flash, that will sometimes help. If you are too far away to use a fill, you'll have to live with what you get, or try shooting early in the morning or later in the afternoon when the light isn't as harsh.

I agree that Dixie does some fine work. I'm sure it didn't just happen when first picked up a camera. Like the rest of us, he had to work at it. The old "trial and error" method....lol As I mentioned in another of your threads, now that you know what you could have done differently, or improved on, you can try to use that knowledge next time out :D

One thing that really helps me, especially with white birds, is look at how the bird is lit, not at the beauty of the bird itself. IOW, if you see that there are parts of the bird that are heavily shaded, that's how it's going to show up in your image. The tough part is that if you try to use EV comp to lighten the shadows, you can easily blow out the white. Also as I mentioned, most of us get way more of these type results (like yours and much worse) than what you see cherry picked and posted here. I bet even Dixie gets more losers than winners. With birds, I think I'm at around 10% hit rate. IOW, 90% of my shots don't make the cut :rolleyes

The more you shoot and apply what you've learned from your last shoot, the better your images will become. I wish there was a shortcut, but I haven't found one. I've come to the conclusion that we all have to pay our dues.

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

[Harryb]

Hey Jeff,

The first thing I'm gonna respond to is the title. What the heck is this crap of "not as good as". I just hate that!:bash Its not like its a competition here. You're shouldn't be trying to be as good as anyone. You should be trying to do the best that you can with what you got. Climbing down from the :soapbox

The first pic is well composed and the exposure looks pretty good. What were your camera setting for that shot (ISO, speed and aperture)? The shot isn't sharp so I'm guessing that shutter speed was too slow and eitehr you should have upped your ISO or opened up your aperture a bit.

The second shot is also well composed. You got the snowy with its foot coming out of the water with some water action behind the foot, very cool. It looks like a very tough exposure because the upper portions of the snowy are a tad blown out and the bill is not distinct It was a no win exposure. You could have exposed for the blown out highlights and you would have lost the bill. A real toughie. The snowy's feet are not as sharp as they could be probably due to the shutter speed. All in all a pretty good shot under very difficult conditions.:thumb

[jwear]

Nice one :thumb. There are some things good be better (as always :D), and the bird guys (you know who you are), will come by I'm sure and offer great tips !!
I wanna know where in L. A. did you find it??:scratch

I just found this place by my house:

www.ballonawetlands.com (http://www.ballonawetlands.com)as you then know steven spelberg has talked the state into handing him 100 million of our $s to built a studio there and removing the wet lands that have been there ---------- ever JEFF

[bfjr]

as you then know steven spelberg has talked the state into handing him 100 million of our $s to built a studio there and removing the wet lands that have been there ---------- ever JEFF
Well yes and no :dunno:scratch. But I do see and hate all the massive construction going on now and who knows...............

However they are keeping the wetland on the oceanside. Took a ride over today and can't say I'm much impressed. Saw some duckys :D, and other small critters, but of course no heron (great, blue, or other wise). Also looks to me like your going to need one of those bigun..........lenes to fill your frame. Of course I no gotta one of those, YET!! :cry

[jwear]

Harry the title was joking his egret was a roster :dunno :rofl you and steve have me convinced I am shooting to get better [it is not like there is a competition here ]:huh :huh :huh maybe a little :cry I am just at the stage of calming down and tr ying to look at my settings and shooting .Before i shot 35 shots and had not reset from fluorescent I have a little more understanding now of lightig and setting exposure ect.I have not picked very easy subjects and found them at bad lighting times [steve got that one ] I never take the tripod :uhoh but you guys have me looking at photos and telling people this is not good ect i have to laugh at my self on this one .It still is a wonder how you can look and tell what they have done in ps ect .thank you all for the help and encouragement i want you to know that i went out for the first time and had 15 of my shots printed 8x10 and hung on the wall and my bball shot was a big hit at photo class :thumb
I will be more careful with those d-- titles from now on:rofl Jeff

[Harryb]

Harry the title was joking his egret was a roster :dunno :rofl you and steve have me convinced I am shooting to get better [it is not like there is a competition here ]:huh :huh :huh maybe a little :cry I am just at the stage of calming down and tr ying to look at my settings and shooting .Before i shot 35 shots and had not reset from fluorescent I have a little more understanding now of lightig and setting exposure ect.I have not picked very easy subjects and found them at bad lighting times [steve got that one ] I never take the tripod :uhoh but you guys have me looking at photos and telling people this is not good ect i have to laugh at my self on this one .It still is a wonder how you can look and tell what they have done in ps ect .thank you all for the help and encouragement i want you to know that i went out for the first time and had 15 of my shots printed 8x10 and hung on the wall and my bball shot was a big hit at photo class :thumb
I will be more careful with those d-- titles from now on:rofl Jeff
Hey Jeff,

I can see the improvement you have made over these past weeks. I think taking that photo class was the best photographic expenditure you've made so far. To get 15 wall hangers is great. :thumb

The only way to master this damn hobby is to keep doing it and to keep learning.

[jwear]

If I was to give advice [you are right Harry] a photo class is very good .I will take another class in a while but only after I work on the things from the first class.The biggest thing about class is each week you have to try something with your camera and every week that tool you get to know a little more .oh yea it was a h--- of a lot of fun and photo folks are not a bad bunch of ---:dunno you get the idea .thanks Harry you out grown that glass yet :rofl :rofl :rofl

[Dixie]

Jeff, I found a new PS tool. It's called "Roosterizer" and it works wonders. :D :D

[jwear]

Jeff, I found a new PS tool. It's called "Roosterizer" and it works wonders. :D :D NOW THAT'S A HOLLYWOOD EGRET FROM THE SOUTH :rofl :rofl :rofl EMAIL ME THAT PS i will dress em all up and have a new bird ID book Jeff that was a good one dixie:1drink