It's a Plane, It's a Boat, No, It's a Submarine!

[K9Kirk]

No, It's an Anhinga.

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2

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5

 

[tirediron]

Damn.... Cool set.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Very good series. They remind me of a Cormorant. Same family maybe?

 

[K9Kirk]

Very good series. They remind me of a Cormorant. Same family maybe?

Thanks.They are similar looking and related because they're both water birds but there are differences between the two. An Anhinga has a longer neck, a straight, pointed bill, longer tail feathers and are freshwater birds whereas Cormorants are mostly coastal birds.

 

[Jeff G]

Great set Kirk!

 

[K9Kirk]

Damn.... Cool set.

Thank you.

 

[K9Kirk]

Great set Kirk!

Thanks.

 

[zombiesniper]

Great set.

 

[Flying Panda]

Awesome captures on this set Kirk! When I got to the last image after scrolling down I laughed out load realizing the order of the photos explained the title. Extremely funny!

 

[Original katomi]

Brill set. Num 3 is that Nessy, the lock ness monster lol

 

[RVT1K]

Great timing especially with the 2nd shot.

 

[K9Kirk]

Great set.

Awesome captures on this set Kirk! When I got to the last image after scrolling down I laughed out load realizing the order of the photos explained the title. Extremely funny!

Brill set. Num 3 is that Nessy, the lock ness monster lol

Great timing especially with the 2nd shot.

Thanks everyone, much appreciated! I'm not 100% happy with these pics, though. Should I expect my camera and lens to produce tack sharp images most of the time or is that a rarity with any camera? Is a tack sharp pic usually only that one out of a few hundred or more?

 

[RVT1K]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated! I'm not 100% happy with these pics, though. Should I expect my camera and lens to produce tack sharp images most of the time or is that a rarity with any camera? Is a tack sharp pic usually only that one out of a few hundred or more?

I'm an advocate of never being satisfied with my shots, that is what drives continuous improvement.

As far as what percentage of shots "should" be tack sharp....good question.
I find that my biggest barrier to getting super sharp shots is me. If I don't force myself to slow down (and perhaps breath), I have a tendency to jerk a little when hitting the shutter and inducing blur.

But another issue is wide apertures and long lenses. The DOF is so shallow that it is possible to have part of your subject sharp and the rest a little soft.

 

[Original katomi]

Just looked at the shot 1 without all the exit data, I think that you have shallow DOF some parts are indeed sharp others are soft
Other thought is wing tips are moving fast therefore shutter speed would have to be high ish 350 500 th sec
I am nota twitcher so my bird photography skills are limited but theses are things I would look at

 

[K9Kirk]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated! I'm not 100% happy with these pics, though. Should I expect my camera and lens to produce tack sharp images most of the time or is that a rarity with any camera? Is a tack sharp pic usually only that one out of a few hundred or more?

I'm an advocate of never being satisfied with my shots, that is what drives continuous improvement.

As far as what percentage of shots "should" be tack sharp....good question.
I find that my biggest barrier to getting super sharp shots is me. If I don't force myself to slow down (and perhaps breath), I have a tendency to jerk a little when hitting the shutter and inducing blur.

But another issue is wide apertures and long lenses. The DOF is so shallow that it is possible to have part of your subject sharp and the rest a little soft.

Thanks for replying, I appreciate the input. I agree with everything you said but it still bothers me that when say for example, a bird is sitting perfectly still and I'm aiming right at the eye it still doesn't focus on the eye. Of course while looking through the view finder it all appears good until I see it on my computer screen all blown up. I keep thinking that my camera is either front or back focusing but it's hard to tell with most pics because either the focus seems to change from front to back or nothing at all is in good focus. I've read where it's advised to do micro adjustments on your camera when you first get it because many cameras that come out of the factory are not adjusted properly. Whether that's true or not I'm going to go ahead and check mine for that just to be sure it's not that. Maybe I'll just have to get good at using a little manual focus along with the initial auto focus.

It's probably most likely what you said about the dof, the camera is probably choosing something that stands out more to focus on and not what I want it to even though I'm being smooth like a cat. I'll try smaller aper's on bright days also, maybe that will help as well.