This is my first post. I'm fortunate enough to live near the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in Florida and almost every weekend morning I drive through looking for things to photograph. I'm new to photographing birds and I thought I had some good pictures until I decided I wanted to share some and found this forum. I'm so blown away at the quality and quantity of beautiful photos here that I think I might only have a couple worth posting and even then I'm not sure.
This photo was photographed with a Canon 7D and EF70-200 2.8L IS II 1/2500sec at F2.8 from the side of the road. Any comments and critiques would be greatly appreciated.
A big welcome to BPN! It is indeed a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer. You have a great advantage in your location of endless opportunities!
In regards to this image. This reddish is in great breeding plumage, with wonderful lores. The exposure is pretty accurate, but the angle at which the light falls on the bird has resulted in lots of shaded areas. The eye in particular needs to be well illuminated for most images to work. A good starting point when thinking about the lights angle, is to point your shadow at the bird. That gets the light coming fairly straight onto the bird, giving even illumination. Now, there are many times when you will not be able to achieve that, but its a good goal. There are also times, that you will want to deviate from that for artistic reasons, but starting with that is good.
The focus looks a bit off here, except for the bill, which is a bit better. You might be able to get more of the bird in focus when this close by using a smaller f/stop.
Excessive noise reduction can also give this smoothed over look.
The raised wings are nice, his slight angle towards us is also good.
When possible, a slightly lower shooting angle can be more flattering at times, and can help throw the background out of focus.
So, keep posting, looking at other folks images, and by all means, comment on others images. It is a great way to train your eye. I never look at other folks comments until I have made up my own mind.
Sometimes commenting on a new image before other comments are made helps with this as well.
Be sure to post any post processing info with each photo.
Randy mentioned a lower shooting angle. Out at Merritt, whenever possible get out of the vehicle if you can. Squat, kneel, or better yet lay down where you can. Just try not to get bumped by a distracted driver like I got hit last month! You caught the Reddish at the best time of year though.
I would love to comment on this photo, because reddish egrets are one of my favorite subjects...but for some reason, despite waiting for several minutes, no photo on the OP comes up. I have not had a problem with other photos coming up on posts.
Moderator: Is there a glitch in the system, or is the photo especially large? Any enlightenment?
Reddish Egret - Merritt Island, Florida
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