Mostly Water Fouls @ a Local Park

[DepthOfField]

All shots taken with the 100-400mm with 2X TC. The day was cloudy with a slight drizzle off and on.

1.

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8.

 

[Overread38 1]

I would say ( and I think you already know this ) that you are really pushing that lens+TC combo. From what I have read the cloud might have really hampered your efforts.
Good work though, however I would say that composition wise there are a few things that you can improve on. Firstly your shots tend to be a little central (all bar the last and the second) which is fine as it is telling me that you were most likley using autofocus on the centre focusing element. If you can try to get a little less central by manual focusing if you can - its not easy and works best of a tripod, but it is very rewarding when it gose right
The other thing (which is much easier to fix) is that your birds are looking at the end of the photo - as the eyes are what we (as a predator) conect with strongly we follow the look of the animal and when we encounter the end of the photo quickly it feels as if something is missing. Try to get a little more space in the direction of look of the bird (or animal). You don't need a massive amount but something there does help.

Good work and it must have been a tricky day for using the 800mm combo - well done!

 

[matt-l]

water fowls.

as was said, you pushed the lens and TC to the max.

i think 3 is the best one out of this series. 5 is also nice. a lot of these seem to be soft. and number 5 the head is soft on the heron. although i don't shoot herons because of lack of them here, they are tall birds and trying not to cutting limbs is very tricky, but seems you did a good job on that.

-Matt.