Eastern BlueBird Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

[Chase Moxley]

Hello All,
This is my first post to BirdPhotographer.com. This was taken this last weekend in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Lawton, Oklahoma. In early morning with the sun behind me. I use Breeze Browser and Photoshop to process my images.
I feel I got lucky seeing the bluebird that morning, it wasn't a very active morning for birds in the French Lake area.

D500 with 200-500 5.6
Date/Time: 2018:03:17 08:30:39
Shutter speed: 1/640 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6
Focal length: 500mm
Focal length: 750mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On (Normal)
AF mode: AF-C
Image quality: RAW
White balance: AUTO0

[Tim Foltz]

Hello Chase welcome to the forum, you've started with a nice first post.
Nice exposure and background, the image could use a bit more sharpening and the head angle is o.k. but not ideal, preferably more towards you.
You did get a nice catchlight in his eye though.
Looking forward to seeing future posts.

-Tim

[Paul Burdett]

Hi. A nice image with excellent background. To me it looks sharp...maybe a little over-sharpened actually.

[Bob Miller]

Chase...Beautiful first post! I think it looks sharp and the bg is nicely handled. Nice clean image. Did you crop? Looking at your data it looks to be fine just be careful to always try to have your shutter speed equal to or greater than your focal length. Forgetting this rule is one of the leading causes of oof images.

[Chase Moxley]

Thanks for the reminder of the shutter speed equal to or greater than your focal length. My question is if I am at 500mm on my D500. Would I use 500mm or 650mm (I believe the crop factor is 1.3x) to compare to my shutter speed?

[Bob Miller]

Good question! I would go with 650 or higher ( 800) if the light permits it