Egret in flight

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Exposure	0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture	f/4.0
Focal Length	500 mm
ISO Speed	250
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Am practicing BIF, so here is a try......

[Marina Scarr]

You have a lovely background (BG) here and a nice wings down flight pose, You also have a nice angle on your bird as it is angled slightly toward you. It looks as though you were photographing this bird in pretty harsh light and while the whites don't exactly look blown in PS, they do lack detail. The earliest or latest light, will give you the best results.

However, this is about your efforts at BIF, and it's nice to see you are getting out there and practicing. There is NO better way to improve. If I were in your shoes and had a 7D doing BIF, I would have my ISO set at no less than 400 and more often 640 or even 800 when you really needed the extra speed or DOF. When you have faster birds, you may need more speed, and you'll probably need more DOF when using a teleconverter. When you are looking at the photos in the avian forum, make sure you check and see what ISO those photographers are using with a 7D.

Were you practicing with or without a tripod on your 500?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Marina,
Thanks for the suggestions. The light was a bit harsh, will try to shoot early in morn or late evening. I was shooting hand held! I am getting a Wimberley, hope that will help the BIFs.
I plan to visit Miami in March, can you recommend some places where I can go birding in Florida?
Thanks in advance,
Sanjeev

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Marina,
Thanks for the suggestions. The light was a bit harsh, will try to shoot early in morn or late evening. I was shooting hand held! I am getting a Wimberley, hope that will help the BIFs.
I plan to visit Miami in March, can you recommend some places where I can go birding in Florida?
Thanks in advance,
Sanjeev

Anytime is a good time of day to practice BIF, Sanjeev, but don't be looking for your best results in harsh light. I think you did a good job on handholding. I have worked on my BIF on a tripod but not yet strong enough to HH it for long periods.

Please send me a PM or post your Florida info request in the Florida regional forum, and I will be glad to give you a few tips...and I hope someone else will chiime in too b/c I am not as familiar with the East Coast

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Sanjeev,

Light is the issue here, what was the time of day and what software do you use for post processing.

oh,..do you have blinkies turned on to monitor overexposure on the camera's LCD?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Jeff, The time was 9am in the morning. I use DPP to convert RAW to TIFF and then PS. I have the blinkies turned on, but guess I did not check it :-(

[Faraaz Abdool]

Hey Sanjeev,

I'll echo what the others have said here about the perfect wing position and muted BG. I also like the head angle here - although not ideal it still works as it shows how comfortably the (little?) egret folds his neck as he flies. I also agree with the whites lacking detail in the brightest parts. What bugs me most though is the shadow on the inner wing. This happens very easily when the sun is halfway up or halfway down. Not that versed with processing, so I can't advise you further! Sorry!

But great shot nonetheless, I'm saving for a 500II myself. Hope to see more from you.