Pelicans and a Green Heron - CC welcomed

[Demers18]

I took these while in Cuba a couple of weeks ago. The Pelicans were a lot of fun to shoot as they would come by and feed even while there was a lot people on the beach. They would let you get pretty close to them. This also made me realize how difficult it actually is to capture a bird in movement as you will see below.

These were all taken with my EF 70-200 w/o IS and I'm wondering if the IS would have helped much or should I have just increased the ISO to achieve a faster shutter speed?

Any tips would be great as once I got home and put them on my computer, well let's just say they didn't come out the way I had hoped.




1. Lounging Pelican

[/URL] Lounging Pellican by lee demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

2. Pelican Take Off - I like the shot even though I know the DOF is off.

[/URL] Pellican Take Off 2 by lee demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

3. Waiting Pelican

[/URL] Waiting Pelican by lee demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

4. Pelican in the clouds

[/URL] Pelican in the clouds 1 by lee demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

5. Green Heron

[/URL] Green Heron by lee demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[ceeboy14]

Can't complain to \o much about these. You already know what you woulda-shoulds-coulda done, and next time, I am sure you will. I especially like the Green Heron though would clone out the broken end of the branch at the lower left.

 

[Demers18]

Can't complain to \o much about these. You already know what you woulda-shoulds-coulda done, and next time, I am sure you will. I especially like the Green Heron though would clone out the broken end of the branch at the lower left.

Thanks Ceeboy!

I was undecided about that broken branch and now that you mentioned it, it's where my eye goes right away. I'll have to remove it.

 

[Demers18]

Bump

 

[WesternGuy]

Lee, these are quite good. I just got back from a shoot in Florida with Art Morris and we spent a lot of time shooting Pelicans, both brown and white. Your shots look pretty good, so I am curious why you say that "they didn't come out the way I had hoped". The Green Heron is absolutely great, although I agree with cloning out the "broken" part of the branch.

I suspect that part of your "frustration", if that is what it is, arises from shooting with a 70-200. To go for birds, you really need a 100-400mm zoom - your lenses can never be long enough for birds. When you are shooting birds-in-flight as in #2, you should always try to leave a little more space at the ends of the wings so the wings are not too close to the edges of the picture.

WesternGuy

 

[Demers18]

Lee, these are quite good. I just got back from a shoot in Florida with Art Morris and we spent a lot of time shooting Pelicans, both brown and white. Your shots look pretty good, so I am curious why you say that "they didn't come out the way I had hoped". The Green Heron is absolutely great, although I agree with cloning out the "broken" part of the branch.

I suspect that part of your "frustration", if that is what it is, arises from shooting with a 70-200. To go for birds, you really need a 100-400mm zoom - your lenses can never be long enough for birds. When you are shooting birds-in-flight as in #2, you should always try to leave a little more space at the ends of the wings so the wings are not too close to the edges of the picture.

WesternGuy

They are a fun bird to photograph. Being in Florida you would have been just a little further up the Gulf. Where did you go?

The reason is that I didn't nail the focus where I wanted it, I always seem to be a little off. I was able to adjust some in pp but still not a perfect shot as I was hoping to get.

I do like Green Heron a lot as well and haven't had the chance to edit out that broken branch. I'll post web I do though.

And yes you are right that part of my frustration is from my lack of focal distance and also why I'll be looking into a 1.4x Canon extender as I'm also looking to get into sports photography as well. I think it could help out in both situations until I can afford to buy a longer range 2.8.
The issue I had, at least I think I had, was keeping the camera stable while shooting. I was in the ocean waist deep to try and make up some distance and my lens doesn't have the stabilizer.

It's okay though as this little adventure helped me learn quite a bit. I'll also keep that in mind about the wings.

Thanks for your comments WesternGuy, much appreciated.