Turkey Vulture and Canadian Geese

[Rafterman]

Took these in the backyard this afternoon. Comments welcome.

I like the solitude of this Turkey Vulture and the dark, ominous silhouette that resulted from him flying between me and the sunset. Oddly enough, even the slight graininess from the ISO adds something to the image for me.

300mm, 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped and converted to B&W in Lightroom 3



Not long afterwards, a flock of Canadian Geese flew by and were just high enough above the trees to be splattered by the fleeting sun, adding a little touch of color. Wish I had a bit faster shutter speed on this one, but I'm happy with the overall look.

300mm, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped in Lightroom 3

 

[Photographiend]

The first shot is too dark (can't even tell you how the focus worked out) the second has nice color but is out of focus.

 

[coastalconn]

#1 Bird silhouettes are tough. I always find myself shooting too late in the day. #2 Caught the golden hour nicely, but as you know you needed more shutter speed. It's always tough bumping the iso up if you know you need to crop and there are a lot of shadows... You did well for what you had to work with.

 

[LightMatters]

Caught the light nicely in #2. It struck me right away that in the aggregate, the positioning of the wings represent most of the major planes of a single wing-beat. Liked that aspect of the image quite a lot. About #1: Even if it's technically not the sharpest focus, it does have a very evocative effect. If you have Photoshop, you may be able to lighten the sky a bit which could bring a little more contrast/drama to the flight.

 

[Rafterman]

Thanks for the comments, compliments, and feedback. I appreciate it. I purposely darkened the sky in #1 with Lightroom to increase the spooky factor, but from the feedback, I gather that it was a bit too much. I'll lighten it up a bit and re-post later today or tonight. I always shoot in RAW, so it's easy enough to manipulate the original.

#2 was really shot on-the-fly (pun intended). I was just coming back inside the house when I heard the squawks behind me. As I turned around, all I had time to do was flick the camera back on with whatever settings I had at the moment and get 3 frames before the geese flew by. I would have turned up the ISO to try and make it to a 1/1000 shutter speed, but I didn't have time to think, just react.

What I'll do is set one of the D7000's two user-defined settings on the mode dial to have auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000 or maybe even 1/2000. That way, when a spur of the moment "fly-by" happens again, I'll just turn the dial and be ready to rock.

 

[Rafterman]

I lightened and sharpened the Turkey Vulture a bit. Still a B&W conversion, but I like this one better than the first one I posted.



As a bonus, here's a Dark-eyed Junco I shot this morning (please ignore the poop-deck ).

300mm, 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 100, cropped for composition

 

[coastalconn]

The Junco looks great except for the aforementioned deck. It has a very pleasing background and it is nice and sharp!

 

[Rafterman]

The Junco looks great except for the aforementioned deck.

Thanks! My wife had me clean off the railing right after I showed her the photo.

The background is our wood fence which is probably about 15-20ft behind the bird. I actually took that picture from inside the house looking through a double-pane window, so I'm kind of surprised it turned out nice.

On a side note, I am really enjoying the Tamron 70-300. Yes, it's made in China and yes it's plastic, but it's sharp for the price and the Vibration Compensation is fantastic.

 

[MiFleur]

The geese photo is so beautiful as coastalconn mentioned, golden hour is fantastic.
The junco is excellent too.
Wish I could take wildlife as well as you do!

 

[coastalconn]

The Junco looks great except for the aforementioned deck.

On a side note, I am really enjoying the Tamron 70-300. Yes, it's made in China and yes it's plastic, but it's sharp for the price and the Vibration Compensation is fantastic.

Wide open and through a window I would say yours is very sharp! I have the Tammy 70-300 VC also and it is a fantastic lens for the price. All lenses seem to be plastic these days. I've gotten sharp shots at 1/6 and 1/10th handheld the VC is so good. It just doesn't have enough reach for me. If Tamron updated the 200-500 with VC and updated optics it would be unbeatable if it was around $1500.

 

[Rafterman]

The geese photo is so beautiful as coastalconn mentioned, golden hour is fantastic.
The junco is excellent too.
Wish I could take wildlife as well as you do!

You flatter me! I've still got plenty to work on, but I truly appreciate the kind words.