Great-tailed Grackle Bathing

[Guerry Dalrymple]

I shot this lady Sunday morning with my new 600 f4 IS mounted on my Quadpod with a Wimberly head. It was shot in our backyard in our new stream water feature. I would like some suggestions on what would make it a better picture. I was in a blind so she was close resulting in very little croping. Shot in RAW converted to Jpeg.



Canon 40D, 600 f4 IS
AV Mode AWB Auto Focus
1/500 f/8 ISO 125
7:45 am

Thanks

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Guerry, Well, I hate to spoil the backyard party, but if you are gonna photograph on sunny days I would suggest that you totally rethink your pool. With all those white rocks you are dead in the water before you start.... Pools for photography need to be wide, at least 5 feet in diameter and about 1/2 inch deep. And you need to really be careful with the stuff you put around the edges. And with sun angle--you are well off sun angle here. Best of luck, artie

[ChasMcRae]

I have a backyard pool set up and shallow depth is a must.
The 5 foot diameter Im not sure of since it spreads the birds over a larger area.
One thing for sure is that light foregrounds such as light colored rocks kill a shot. The setting appearance would suggest it can be rearranged and therefore gives a great possibility to redo the setting.
Good luck and sitting at a water feature is always great fun especially during migration.
Chas.