Al inspired me to try photographing our purple martins in flight. While I haven't been successful getting any nice crisp photos in flight, I got a few of birds on the perch of the house holding nesting materials. This is my first posting to the forum.
Nikon D200, hand held
Nikkor 80-400 VR @ 400 mm
f6.3
1/1250 sec
EC +.3
PS: cropped, curves, sharpened
Comments welcome!
Have reposted with increased information (200K). I also found that I didn't sharpen the original, so this one has actually been sharpened so should look a bit better.
Last edited by Linda Dulak; 05-30-2008 at 01:50 PM.
Linda good to see you post! Aren't P Martins lovely birds? Really nice eye contact and lovely color too. The feather details look a bit smeared and I don't think they should be, looking at your shutter speed?
Why not repost, use this thread, and use the full size allowed, 800 on the long side and 200KB. I think that will show you image off much better!!!
I think you framed him nicely, with nothing clipped. You have a nice head angle, with nice eye contact. I like the nesting material ... it is too bad that it is merging with his dark face. Overall, it looks soft on my screen. Was this a large crop? Also, perhaps a tripod would help with this perch version. What ISO were you using?
For flights, just keep on practicing! It will come! I am envious, because it looks like you have a really nice environment to work with. I would try to replace the white stick with a dark branch.
Thanks Brian and Nonda. I've reposted a better image. Thanks for the link and the tutorial.
I wasn't intending to photograph perching birds. This was a perch on the house and I wanted to see if I was clipping any colors. It turned out to be an interesting pose and I thought I'd post it. We have a few trees nearby that offer some good opportunities for photos of these fellows.
You are quite right ... sorry for the confusion, as I was trying to comment both on your posted perch image, and on flight photography at the same time.
You have good exposure here for a dark bird in harsh light. However, if the bird starts to fly across varied background, it will be very difficult to maintain a good exposure. Try practicing with setting your exposure manually. Jim Neiger wrote a really nice post in the learning section on his methods for flight photography.
Thanks for the ISO information, as getting more shutter speed generally helps in getting more flight keepers (but higher ISO = also more noise).
But continue with lots of practice, especially if handholding (Alfred also recommends to practice panning faster)! Try and see if the birds are around in the early morning or late afternoon (softer) light.
I am still envious, as you are able to easily practice this in your yard! Looking forward to your results!
Purple Martin
