Panning Practice, Goose on the River

[PixelRabbit]

The geese on the river make quite the ruckus when they are getting ready to take off. Lately when I'm poking around outside I have been using it to practice getting in place, setting up the camera quickly and panning.
This is the best set yet. I would still like to get it a wee bit sharper and a little more light and contrast from the shoreline would be nice.
I'm thinking stopping down a bit and upping the ISO would have improved the shots.
C&C always welcome and appreciated.
Thanks for taking a look!

Shot settings:
1/250
5.6
ISO100

 

[Joel_W]

Judi, if you're shooting flying birds, you need to up your ISO to 400-800, use a higher shutter speed, and step down the lens.

With that being said, you did a pretty good job of capturing that goose in flight. Picture one is the sharpest of the set, and with the downward wings, the motion is perceived, yet perfectly controlled. Picture 3 has just the right amount of wing motion especially compared to picture 4, which has just a tad too much.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Hey Joel, what I'm trying to achieve with the panning shots is the bird in focus but still have motion in the wings and background blurred by the panning motion. I don't want to up my shutter speed too much or I will start to freeze the background and lose that " motion"
I actually would have liked more blur in the water and shoreline than I captured in these.

 

[Joel_W]

Hey Joel, what I'm trying to achieve with the panning shots is the bird in focus but still have motion in the wings and background blurred by the panning motion. I don't want to up my shutter speed too much or I will start to freeze the background and lose that " motion"
I actually would have liked more blur in the water and shoreline than I captured in these.

Judi, I understand what your goals are, and picture 1 achieved that perfectly. Considering that I suck at anything that moves, I'm the last to talk.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Pssshaw you have taught me a lot with your C&C !