Bolsa Chica trip

[BYK]

First of all, C&C is appreciated! Just note that some of these pictures required some effort to take, as my lenses require me to get quite close for pictures.

I went down to Bolsa Chica wetlands the other day and there was this egret that I was literally 3 yards from...

at first it was giving me this "what the hell are you doing?" look as I tried to crawl slowly to approach it.

On a side note, I'm saving up for that 70-200, but in the meantime I'm going to have to use the poor man's zoom, aka commando crawl. The guys fishing there must have thought I was insane.

Right when I got about to shooting distance and started trying to fix the exposure on it's damn white body it decided to go somewhere else. But I did get a pretty decent picture with only a little bit of blown highlights!

Also, we spotted this beetle -- it's a stinkbug and it didn't seem to like us very much.

A few more random pictures:

A random gate in the middle of the reserve (I guess the land next to the reserve is private property)

A picture of a heron my friend took -- it was with a point and shoot, in shadows, in low light so I rescued it on photoshop the best I could...

 

[Vautrin]

#2 is better then #1 -- I prefer the profile.

Both #1 2 & maybe #3 might benefit from cropping. The background is too sharp and it's distracting.

But considering what you had to go through to get the shots of the bird it's a good job...

I really like #4 -- it's a very nice effect.

And I think #5 is nice the way it is... I like this effect of a person / animal/ thing as a shadown on a background...

 

[BYK]

im a little confused... by 4 & 5 i'm assuming you mean 4 & 6? Or 5 & 6?

Also critique duly noted -- I just didn't want to crop out too much of the scenery (I find it a interesting distraction)

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I'm a little confused too.

Your first post (first to me anyway) showed promise. This is more like what the hell? Am I confused as to who you are?

#1 and 2 why didn't you commando crawl to the left so as to get rid of that most ugly bridge (or whatever it is) in the background?

#3 you've got the bug sharp but the image is nothing to write home about. I'll venture to say that bug shots of bugs doing nothing (or whatever it is doing there) are only interesting to bug lovers but, then, the bug should probably be a much bigger part of the image.

#4 and 5 are snapshots with 5 being really obnoxious. If you are going to photograph the most common type of fence in the US, you had better make it artistically incredible.

#6 I really like that one. Too bad it is not really yours.

Keep shooting and learn. And don't take anything said here too personally.

 

[Josh220]

Did you go to the bridge a little further down PCH or did you only go to that little parking lot with the trailer? (Across the street from the harbor).

You didn't really see the wetlands if you only made it to the entrance off Warner.

 

[BYK]

@cloudwalker

haha, nice to know you remember me


anyway, this was less of an attempt to get something artistic and more of an attempt to catalog wildlife. you'd be surprised how small the area is -- move to the left a little and you're sitting in the middle of someone's research project.

The bug shot -- I thought it was interesting cause the whole time we were looking at it going "why is this bug doing nothing and just sitting around?" when it turned out that the bug was actually brewing something special for us in its backside :lmao:

4 & 5 - yeah, they're snapshots. Just didn't really get anything better that day, and plus the area was interesting.

You have no idea how much I wished I had a telephoto or something of the sort -- I tried to capture #6 with my camera and at 100% crop the bird was at 2 cm tall. Same with all the other bird pictures. (sigh)

As for who I am? I'm nobody special, who gets lucky with people photography sometimes. Maybe once I get a telephoto lens I'll come back with pictures that'll make you crap your pants with delight :x


@josh220

we parked at the trailer off warner, then hiked over to the area next to the bridge off PCH. Saw tons of birds, but couldn't get any good captures (I blame it on my limited lens selection).

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Remember you? Sure. I am getting older by the minute and losing my mind pretty bad but... it was only a couple days ago. Unless, that is, you are not the person I was thinking of and/or your post is not even for me :lmao:

I understand about #1 and 2, Actually wondered if that was the problem.

#3 You have to keep in mind that not everyone is a bug lover. I am not and I react accordingly. One of the bug lovers on this forum may react very differently though.


Now, what does it mean that you are ironman?

 

[BYK]

hahaha i just saw the movie -- it's one of the quotables from the movie. The part where Tony Stark is getting interviewed by the press.


changed it to something a little more appropriate.

Yeah, I know what post you're talking about. Unfortunately my trip to bolsa chica had a lot less thought put into the pictures and a lot more running after birds going on. 1 & 2 were the only good close ups i could get of a bird (oh, and trust me, I spent quite a bit of time attempting further up the trail)

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Movie? Ok, no wonder I had no idea. I don't see any movie until it comes out on DVD :lmao:

As for the rest of it, keep shooting. No matter what I or anybody else says, shooting is your best way to learn.

 

[BYK]

Sorry, but unfortunately you have destroyed my dreams of being an artist with you scathing criticisms of my mediocre work




But really, I think you'll probably see a lot more so-so stuff than great stuff from me for a while -- I've only been shooting for a month or so, after all. I guess the important thing (for me) is not to get a few exceptional shots but be at a consistently higher level. (as in, raise the bar on my crappy shots)

 

[c.cloudwalker]

i'm glad (I think, I hope) that you get my comment for what it is. We all had to learn once upon a time and, yes, I probably will see more so-so stuff but as long as it gets progressively better, that is all that matters.