Cattle Egret (panning practice)

[Morkel Erasmus]

Went to the local pond yesterday afternoon after a long drought of avian shooting. Most of the breeding birds have returned to the small island in the middle - meaning hordes of sacred ibis, cattle egret and black-headed heron joined by a few straggling spoonbills, cormorants, little egrets and yellow-billed ducks are hustling and bustling around the island. In the afternoons there is a clear view on the island and the sun shines on it unobstructed until it sets - making for some good light.

Now that summer is here there is sufficient light after work to do some shooting there now and then.

Yesterday I practiced my panning shots since I arrived a bit late and the light was fading fast.

Your comments most welcome...

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 200mm
f5.6 @ 1/125 SS @ ISO-200 (auto ISO)
Shutter Priority
Exp +0.3

[Graham Smith.]

Interesting shot Morkel...sounds like you've got a nice photo spot over there.
I think you did quite well with the panning. Eye is relatively sharp, but perhaps a little sharpening would help. The BG is quite busy, and it's interesting that the far wing looks like blue sky from the BG(?)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Graham...it's quite an interesting spot but one gets bored with the same species over and over :)
I also noticed the blue sheen on the wing but left it as is since that's how my camera captured the play of light with the blurring?

[Stu Bowie]

LC Mork?? Interesting effect on the far wing, and the head is sharp. If you were on ISO auto in fading light, howcome your ISO was so low, or did you set it to that to purposely get a slow ss. Cheers.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Stu - looks like LC but it's right here in Secunda :)
I was on Shutter Priority and auto ISO so I guess with the metering I had at that moment the camera just chose 200?

[Stu Bowie]

Cool. Yeah, looking at the BG, it could have picked up a lighter area as you pressed the shutter. Normally, the ISO would hunt for the highest ISO to suit the light and ss. There again, looking at your ss, (which you set ) it wasnt that high anyway.

[Glenda Simmons]

I'm trying to learn from your image, and have done very little panning shots. Even though you are trying to blurr the background, I would think you would want to set your shutter speed for an in flight bird at a higher shutter speed...say 250 sec? Perhaps a thread should be started on this, as I am interested in learning more of the technique and what works for others. Nice effort on your part, Morkel. Thanks for sharing and getting my "thinker", thinking.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Glenda - yeah I normally go for SS of about 1/60 to 1/100 for animals, and here 1/125 worked well for the bird. it's all about finding which shutter speeds does it for you with your lens/body combo.