Blue Heron

[Joe Gazzarato]

This is my first time posting. I am an amateur photographer and always enjoy shooting nature. I have been inspired by the photos I see on this site. Being entirely honest, I am a bit intimidated about posting one of my own pictures, but I really want to improve and would appreciate honest input and advice.

This picture was taken at a wildlife refuge a couple hours from my home in Michigan. The birds are by no means captive here. The area is basically hundreds of acres of marsh / wetlands that is protected from development. It was not the first time I went out specifically to shoot birds, but it was the first time in such a wide open area. It was very difficult to get quality shots of birds with adequate contrast and acceptable backgrounds.

Here a Heron popped up as I was walking along a trail and I was able to get my camera up and snap a couple shots. I cropped a bit to make the bird bigger in the photo.

I would appreciate input on the image as well as any advice you can offer on how to get tight shots of birds in a natural environment with good contrast and backgrounds.

Thank you.

Joe Gazzarato

[Bryan Hix]

Welcome Joe. I have a few suggestions for this one: I think that you would want to try to capture any bird with the angle toward you versus flying away from you. Also, since you have not included any of the image data, it's hard to comment technically on the photo. It looks like there is a lot of noise, so not sure what ISO setting you used, the WB is very warm with a red tint to it and if you shoot in RAW, you can easily correct that. Also, the metering looks a little overexposed, but again without data it's difficult to comment. There is a ton of invaluable information on this website, so take it all in and keep posting. There are some phenomenal photographers on this website who I am sure can help you improve your technique. Check out the eager to learn threads.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Very warm welcome to you here. This is the right place to be for those eager to learn. I might consider to visit more often another forum as well: http://birdphotographers.net/forums/...splay.php?f=23

Bird photography requires at least a mid ranged lens like 300mm with 1,4 or 2x teleconverter, however it is ideal to have a 500mm lens. On the other hand personally I like images showing birds in habitat. The image you presented gives an idea about the bird and its habitat it is living in. You just have to take care avoiding too large crops as you will have no detail on the subject.

In your next post don't forget to provide tech and gear details where we can learn more of the background of conditions.

Good luck and don't be shy to tell others how you like their images.

Szimi

[Jamie Strickland]

Hey Joe Shiwassee is my fav place to go, its a long darn hike upto the far end but so worth it, I take my bike now :) I have been up there a few times and the amount of herons / egrets is crazy, I cant wait till the fall for the ducks / geese.

anyway as far as the picture my guess is this is a pretty large crop which is why it looks noisy, as already mentioned having them flying towards instead of away is a big improvement, although not always so easy of course

since you did not post your gear we are not sure what you have but some things that will help

- AI Servo if your not using it already, a long lens for sure I have been through a few and finally landed on the canon 500L, use a tripod with a good head, at a minimum use a monopod

for getting closer try a blind, you know there are 2 there right? 1 is open to the public the other you have to call and book, but even from the reserved one you will want a big lens I was using a 500 + 1.4TC and still wanting more :)

the public blind you can get very close to geese and a scattered heron /egret, I have only been there a few times

dont worry about being intimidated you will learn alot from people here in a hurry, as you can see there are many talented photographers here

[Phil Ertel]

I like the composition as it shows the habitat with out being too distractive. The size of the bird in frame is OK with me. The biggest issue in this image are:
1) the bird flying away from you (better luck next time)
2) the noise. Selective running a noise reduction application or a small amount of Gaussian Blur on the background during processing might be the ticket. Also as mentioned above if this is a large crop beware that it shows noise and affect detail.

Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing more of your images.