Osprey - You know it is spring when they .....

Here we go, my first post of images here, so I'll just jump right in and have a go. Be gentle please :w3 Also, please let me know if my watermark is too large for the forum guidelines.

So, You know it is spring when they .....

Are busy making babies http://www.nikoncafe.com/xenf/styles...foro/clear.png

This is the end of a mating sequence, first two are cropped a bit, last two are "as-is" in that regard. Not much luck with decent Osprey the last couple of years, but this is a nest I will monitor throughout the season. Should be good when chicks are about and when they fledge. I will cut back on the focal length next time as well. If you look at the EXIF, ignore the D5300, this is really the D7200. Model is spoofed to process in Lightroom.

Let me know what you think.

1. TaDa! All done!
http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s7/...21087293-5.jpg

2. Lift Off
http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s12...21087307-5.jpg

3. Departure
http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s6/...21087329-5.jpg

4. Leaving on a Jet Plane - Sing along, you all know the song!
http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s12...21087364-5.jpg <aside>
Technical bits:
Nikon D7200
400mm f2.8 AFS-1 lens + TC20e-III 2.0 Teleconverter, I will cut back on the FL next shoot at this location
800mm
f7.1
1/2000

Thanks for taking a look!</aside>

Dear Bill,

I am delighted you chose to post in this forum! I have only seen one osprey during my travels and never had the chance to photograph one- this is one special sighting! Let us not forget the behavioural aspect...Well done!

My favourite is image no 2, the " lift off"... I just love those big talons!!!

I agree with you, no need for teleconverter unless the chicks are about:) And (not a big issue but I agree with you), the watermark is a tad distracting.

A very special moment and I think you can do a lot more with those images in terms of PP work. I take it the light was quite harsh but you handled the conditions well, you could perhaps lift the shadows a bit - what do you think? Try avoid the contrast slider and watch out for colour casts:w3

Hope you keep an eye on the nest, I so look forward to see the little ones! And maybe A Story Sequence of parents feeding the babies?

Kind regards,

Thank you so much for the kind reply and welcome, Gabriela. Osprey's are quite interesting birds, fish eaters only, and the talons are very well developed for snatching fish. What is interesting is that the Osprey will actually go under water to snag fish, quite a sight to see. As to the watermark, is the "smaller" version that I have added a bit better? Does this meet Forum guidelines? I can go a bit smaller if need be, just want to be sure that I remain in compliance with both the spirit and letter of the forum.

This sequence was late in the day, 5:40PM, the bird is flying North, West is to the left of the bird, to our right which is obvious. I have gone back and added a bit of polarization, clarity and special sauce using both NIK and OnOne plugins. What do you think of the new version of #2? By the way, I quite like this one as well, it almost looks as if the Female is catapulting the Male into the air with her tail.

Version 2 of #2
http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s7/...29675256-5.jpg

Hi Bill - Welcome and its always nice to see an osprey sequence. You've gotten a nice pov, not to0 steep up to the nest. As you say the first 2 are cropped I would back off the crop and include the full wings if you have them. I'm generally not a fan of clipped wings unless it is purposeful like going for a tight body shot to show prey. I much prefer your smaller logo as it doesn't interfere with viewing the images. I think your additional steps in the rp of #2 has introduced a fair bit of noise so I would maybe revisit the process or apply less of the adjustments. Another thing to look out for is the halos along the edges of the osprey. As Gabriela can tell you, it's a pet peeve of mine. It usually comes from either applying too much clarity, too much sharpening not feathering a selection or a combination of all of the above.

You should also feel free to take your favorite of the sequence and post it in either Avian or ETL whichever you feel more comfortable posting in. You're likely to get additional comments and suggestions that way.

TFS,
Rachel

Dear Bill,

I like the watermark a lot more in your RP, found the previous one quite overwhelming as it was drawing attention from the subject itself.

The RP appears a tad crunchier than the OP for some reason, I suspect NIK could be the "culprit" here - I too tried it at some stage and realised one has to be very careful and use those effects at very low percentage. I do not use it anymore. I do not use any plugins either, if the image is sharp to begin with I just do a few adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop...exposure, levels, curves, a bit of dodge and burn, nothing fancy. All in layers and selectively applied where needed. I am very careful with saturation and contrast. A large crop can affect the IQ tremendously, although sometimes I do take my chances. And I try to keep in mind that "less is more":)

Bill, not sure about your ethics in terms of processing but since you do make use of "outside help" like plug-ins and NIK I assume you would not mind a bit of cloning - if this were mine I would remove the dark bit in the R corner of the image, I assume it is part of the female (maybe the head?) but it does not contribute much to the image as such.

A lovely sequence and you have captured a unique aspect of the subjects' behaviour, I sincerely hope we see more from you in the future:w3

Kind regards,

Rachel, much appreciated. Never fear, you can air ALL your pet peeves on my images, and I when I don't agree I'll let you know :bg3: You and I could probably spend days/years/decades/eons debating the "clipped wing" issue. And I am going to guess we would have great laughs, agree on the basics, and not change each others minds tremendously, but in general I do like to get "full images" in play, especially when it is a bird in flight. In this case, I simply had "too much" lens, can't believe I said that, at this location.

I can't believe, now that I look at it, how crappy that "hump" in the lower right looks, that is what I get for trying to do this in a hurry when tired. Next step, start from scratch and pay attention!

I am planning to drop #2 into the Avian section, "real soon now", figured I would start here just to get used to the forum a bit first.

Thanks again, your comments are much appreciated.

( Now I have to go find one of Rachel's to unleash some pet peeve of mine .... oops, I hope she wasn't listening ..... :w3 )

Thanks again, as I explained in my reply to Rachel, I was in a hurry and not paying nearly as much attention. As to my "ethics", it is MY danged picture and I'll do what I want, darnit!!!!! Where my ethics really do come into play, however, is in full disclosure of anything shot in a not completely wild environment, such as a game farm or raptor center. Or if I have removed something really substantial. I suspect that the "crunchiness" you are seeing, including that hideous no-excuses garbagey looking blob in the lower right corner with the HORRID halo Dewey what were you were THINKING comes from my just doing "additive" work to the TIFF, rather than doing what I should do, start with RAW and pay attention. So while NIK can be a culprit for sure, especially using something like Tonal Contrast too heavily, in this case it is really Dewey being the culprit for being lazy. Worse, I did it in front of an audience, sheesh.

Hopefully this post is also an example of how I react to my own foibles, if you could see me now I'm guessing my face is a bit on the RED side, and it should be. That being said, I really appreciate the way that you and Rachel have responded. If that is an indication of how this place works I will be one happy camper.

OK, you all shamed me for my big OOPS, so here is RP#2. I should know better when I do a re-process, and let this be a lesson to all, to NEVER go back and try to be too "additive", you can easily run yourself down a rat hole. As usually, a "restart" with a fresh eye often results in far fewer steps. Please take special notice that the ugly "lump" lower right has kindly gotten itself out of the image.

http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s6/...31816797-5.jpg

Dear Bill,

RP no 2 is the best insofar as I am concerned, and just keep in mind that BPN is a place to share as well as learn, so no reason whatsoever to feel bad about certain choices you made while processing.

We are not so critical about techs in this forum as we wish to encourage members to share their most unusual sightings, regardless of the conditions at the time they captured those particular frames. But we are happy to contribute with a critique - be it of a technical nature or otherwise - should you require such feedback.

Feel free to send me a PM if you have any queries and I will clarify those for you, I just wish to thank you once again for your participation and look forward to your future posts:)

Kind regards,

Thanks, Gabriela. No worries, it is just I my nature to note what I should have done rather than not, the little "nits" that folks point out always help, as do different points of view. One thing I am seeing here is that the "view to response" rate is not much better than other sites, I was hoping that a wider range of folks would respond, but I have sure learned over time that is not the nature of a lot of people.

That being said, the quality of the input I have seen so far is grand. One of the most difficult things for me is to be sure that I notice the "little things", such as that lump in the lower right corner, that are distracting, and places like this help me keep that in mind.

Thanks as well for the offer of guidance via PM, should I have questions I will drop you a note. On the flip side, should you ever see me post in a manner that is not quite up to BPN standards, please let me know, as most likely it is simple an "oops" on my part.

Thank you Bill,

This Forum is brand new and I believe it will take some time to grow in terms of participation. A reasonable number of views already and perhaps not as many replies as you would expect, this because members might be unsure how to comment and what to focus on, in their replies.

Telling a story with images is not as easy as it seems, and together we will learn to tell the difference between "a story" and "a good story" where the latter is one that really grabs you, not only in terms of content (a choice of images that is interesting, entertaining, or just moves you) but also in terms of processing (lighting, composition, and so forth).

When it comes to literature, short stories are more difficult to write than novels, it is a bit like turning a number of pages into a couple of sentences. I see " Story Sequences" as short pieces of journalism. In terms of photography we are talking about small but powerful packages, indeed more difficult to construct, but you may break some rules, make new rules, think out of the box, throw in Macro or Avian or Wildlife or the three together, studio work, street photography, anything goes as long as you get the message across.

As to the "little things" - I had the same issue when I started sharing my images on BPN:) By the way this is the best place to learn as far as I am concerned, and actively participating in all Forums will reward you in so many ways. I suggest you post an image in Avian, Wildlife or Macro, and put a link to your Story Sequence, if you have one. A simple piece of advice I got and wish to share with you is "never post something you just edited, straight away", give it a day or two and you will see all those things, including colour casts, over and under sharpening, the little rock in the corner...

I am a great BPN Wildlife Forum fan and love to participate there, still learning from the other members and rely on their feedback to improve my work. I am more than happy to share with you some of the things I have learnt, drop me a PM whenever you need to chat:)

Kind regards,

One other thing to keep in mind is that the view count includes all viewers, not just BPN members. It also includes all views so if people view multiple times to see how the discussion is developing then each time they view it registers. So that's the long way of saying view count really is not a good indicator.

Gabriela and Rachel, thank you both again for your comments and explanation of the View Count. As you can tell, or if you can't then I'll tell you anyway, I believe that you "get what you give" in a forum, as you can see my "reply" count spreads across a wide range of threads. This is how I learn. One thing I encourage everyone to do is to comment and critique. People often are fearful of that word "critique", many times saying "But I don't know enough, I don't have experience". To that I say "pish-posh", you have an opinion, and at least for me that is important to hear. The only way to learn the "technique" part is to participate. If I don't like a critique, I will explain why I did what I did, and we will go our subjective ways, as there are hundreds of ways to skin these cats. More often than not, however, I will gain some knowledge I did not have.

So far I have been very appreciative of the comments here, haven't seen a "that sucks" yet :bg3: Not to say "that sucks" isn't valid, it is if there is good explanation, and a grin, to go along with it.

Gabriela, as to this forum specifically, I think this is a great idea. As often as not I have images that go together to tell a story, such as this one. We can disagree whether or not it is a "good" story, but even the stories we may not like have something to teach us. Great idea to start it, I hope others help to keep it going.