Great Blue Herons

kathyt · Jun 3, 2013

I got out today and attempted to do some bird shooting. I am new to this bird thing, so go easy on me. I found some GBH's and some Pelicans. I will post some pelicans later.

coastalconn · Jun 3, 2013

Your off to a good start. Flight shots are very tricky and it looks like #4 is in focus pretty well...
It seems that the head/eye are a little soft in the first 2. Are they heavy crops? On these small web shots it's hard to tell, but it looks like you might have a little front focus going on. I could be 100 % wrong of course because it's hard to say where the focus point was? Shooting on full frame you might have to stop down to get a little more DOF to keep large birds like herons in focus.. With GBH 1/1000th a sec is generally fast enough to stop motion as they fly pretty slow. Stationary you can lower if you are on a pod... If you stop down in good light you should have adequate shutter speed and you could push the 5D a little higher if needed in the ISO department.. Of course this is just my humble opinion... It gets very addicting very fast

baturn · Jun 3, 2013

#4 for me ,because again, it's a view from an angle I've never seen before. Nicely done!

kathyt · Jun 3, 2013

coastalconn said:
Your off to a good start. Flight shots are very tricky and it looks like #4 is in focus pretty well...
It seems that the head/eye are a little soft in the first 2. Are they heavy crops? On these small web shots it's hard to tell, but it looks like you might have a little front focus going on. I could be 100 % wrong of course because it's hard to say where the focus point was? Shooting on full frame you might have to stop down to get a little more DOF to keep large birds like herons in focus.. With GBH 1/1000th a sec is generally fast enough to stop motion as they fly pretty slow. Stationary you can lower if you are on a pod... If you stop down in good light you should have adequate shutter speed and you could push the 5D a little higher if needed in the ISO department.. Of course this is just my humble opinion... It gets very addicting very fast

I didn't crop at all. It was pretty fun. It was kinda like fishing. I just kept waiting...and waiting...until I got some bites. This lens is not one I am used to either, so that might be part of the problem. I will just keep practicing. It is also very relaxing.

DNK · Jun 3, 2013

Very nice captures for your first attempt Kathy. What lens did you use? Taking pictures of birds can become addicting and I agree with you it is relaxing. Wait until you try and shoot some pics of the little birds. Like your colors and sharpness.

kathyt · Jun 3, 2013

DNK said:
Very nice captures for your first attempt Kathy. What lens did you use? Taking pictures of birds can become addicting and I agree with you it is relaxing. Wait until you try and shoot some pics of the little birds. Like your colors and sharpness.

Thank you. I was using the Canon 300mm 2.8L with a 2x tele-converter.

coastalconn · Jun 3, 2013

Wow, un-cropped! That explains it. With the 5dm3 and a 300 F2.8+2x TC your DOF is very small at close distances. Just an estimate, at 50 feet your DOF is only like 8" and at 100 feet a little under 3 feet! It is one of those things that are very easy to overlook when you first start shooting monster lenses!... When I'm shooting my Ospreys, I try to shot at F8 to make sure I get enough DOF to get them all in focus.

Bird photography is a really wonderful experience and allows you to view and appreciate a whole different side of nature. I'm constantly in awe of the things I see when I'm out there that I never took the time to notice...

TimothyJinx · Jun 3, 2013

Love, love, love #4, Kathy! Great job!

sm4him · Jun 4, 2013

And so it begins...be careful, there's NO cure once you get bitten by the bird photography bug!

These are quite nice, considering you're new to it. Better than anything I took when I started, by a long shot.
#4 is cool--and a shot I've been attempting for a while, but have yet to be happy with my results!--but if it were mine, I'd probably considering cropping it just a bit to make the heron take up as much of the frame as possible.

coastalconn said:
Wow, un-cropped! That explains it. With the 5dm3 and a 300 F2.8+2x TC your DOF is very small at close distances. Just an estimate, at 50 feet your DOF is only like 8" and at 100 feet a little under 3 feet! It is one of those things that are very easy to overlook when you first start shooting monster lenses!... When I'm shooting my Ospreys, I try to shot at F8 to make sure I get enough DOF to get them all in focus.

Bird photography is a really wonderful experience and allows you to view and appreciate a whole different side of nature. I'm constantly in awe of the things I see when I'm out there that I never took the time to notice...

^ AMEN to that! I honestly never much cared about birds. I'd watch a hawk or something really bright and colorful, but didn't really care to find out what they were, or sit and watch their activity. I had NO idea of some of the birds that are pretty common around here. Ospreys, double-crested cormorants, indigo buntings, all sorts of things I'd never seen before and now I realize they're everywhere, if you train yourself to look!
Sometimes, I just marvel at what I'm seeing, and at the great variety of birds there are; it's just FUN.