Great Blue Heron blur

[Barry Ekstrand]

Going for a wing blur to create a sense of movement, please let me know what you think.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 400mm f5.6L, Canon EF1.4x III TC while panning on the Heron

560mm, f8, 1/100 sec

PP in Lightroom, cropped about 1/3 for placement and eliminating bright sky at the top of the frame.

All comments appreciated!

Barry

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Barry, You definitely got the wing blur...but the rest of the bird looks blurred too... and sure would be nice to see a bit of neck. I also feel that the background is oversaturated and is competing with the subject. 1/100 is pretty (well, REALLY) slow for a BIF, even aiming for wing blur. Somewhere around 1/500 (maybe more?) may have captured the effect a bit better. (I practice on helicopters, and have managed to get some prop blur with the main body relatively clear... small single or twin aircraft are also good subjects..... but I have YET to actually try it on a bird!) TFS!

[arash_hazeghi]

nice panning try, these shots are tricky as you need to get the head or at least the eye sharp, 1/100sec is too slow... Here the bird and the image are both too small so it's hard for the viewer to connect with the subject

[Barry Ekstrand]

Sandy and Arash,

Thank you for the comments. I haven't tried too many of these, have more to learn in finding the sweet spot of shutter speed and steady panning and need to practice a bunch. I appreciate the feedback!

Barry