First bird shots under the new TPF CC guidelines!

[preames]

These are 3 shots (as per the guidelines) that are a follow-up from last Fridays BBSP post...

Thanks in advance for any CC!

1) Not the best technicals, but I liked this GBH's pose...


2) A Snowy Egret


3) A Tricolored Heron

[J Eddington]

While they are all three good. The light on the snowy egret wings is just killer.

[Tim T]

Sweet shots Patrick. I like all of them. My only suggestion for improvement is on the crops. Try using the rule of thirds which keeps the subject from being centered and will leave less room on the back side of the bird and more room in the flight path.

[lhdvies]

I like the last one a lot Patrick-all are good! I agree with Tim on the crop improvements on 1 & 2

[DHaass]

Originally Posted by Tim T

Sweet shots Patrick. I like all of them. My only suggestion for improvement is on the crops. Try using the rule of thirds which keeps the subject from being centered and will leave less room on the back side of the bird and more room in the flight path.

+1 on Tim's comment about cropping. One thing to keep in mind: shoot a little short. What I mean is if you are using the center spot for focus, which most do for BIF, leave a little room around the bird for cropping. If you pull the bird in full frame you will not be able to crop as Tim suggests.

For smaller birds full frame may be the way to go. For the larger ones it seems to work out better with a little room around them. Rules are there to help guide everyone in their photography, but breaking them at times works well too.

[preames]

Originally Posted by J Eddington

While they are all three good. The light on the snowy egret wings is just killer.

Thanks Janice! I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Tim T

Sweet shots Patrick. I like all of them. My only suggestion for improvement is on the crops. Try using the rule of thirds which keeps the subject from being centered and will leave less room on the back side of the bird and more room in the flight path.

Thanks Tim! You are absolutely correct - I blew the crops, particularly on the 2nd shot. I will be more diligent on that.

Originally Posted by lhdvies

I like the last one a lot Patrick-all are good! I agree with Tim on the crop improvements on 1 & 2

Thanks Leon! I'm struggling with the 1st one. I had cropped it to keep enough space on the left so that it felt that he could open his wing on that side and still have enough room, but it does seem a bit unbalanced. I would love a suggestion on that one.

Originally Posted by DHaass

+1 on Tim's comment about cropping. One thing to keep in mind: shoot a little short. What I mean is if you are using the center spot for focus, which most do for BIF, leave a little room around the bird for cropping. If you pull the bird in full frame you will not be able to crop as Tim suggests.

For smaller birds full frame may be the way to go. For the larger ones it seems to work out better with a little room around them. Rules are there to help guide everyone in their photography, but breaking them at times works well too.

Thanks Doug. Shooting short is not a problem a for me! Until I can sell enough blood to get the 500 4.0, I'm almost always cropping pretty hard into my shots...maybe too hard in some cases. That said, I have had a couple of instances though where I have actually had to create additional canvas to give the bird a bit of room, but that is rare.

Thanks guys! This is really helpful feedback! I am going to hang a sticky note on my monitor reminding me to watch the crops.

[kmeronek]

Nice shots Patrick. I like #2 the best. I was just at the NANPA Summit this past week and sat in a break out gruop to listen to the editor from National Geographic Kids magizine talk about cropping. Her stand is do it in the camera and don't crop anything. Very interesting, but I'm not sure it's very practical. She certainly was opinionated.

[bunnyfrogs]

These are great! Agree with the crop suggestions, although I frequently break that rule myself, especially if I crop square and go for symmetry. Nice feather detail too!