Great Blue Heron

[Brent Wellander]

Greetings...I'm new to this forum. Although I've been taking photos most of my life, I've only gotten serious about bird photography this year. I consider this one of my better flight shots which I took recently, but would appreciate an expert critique. I've just ordered 'The Art of Bird Photography' book bundle and look forward to learning some new techniques.

Cheers,

Brent

Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Shutter Speed: 1/640 second
Aperture: F/11.0
Focal Length: 500 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Date Taken: Sep 14, 2009, 9:35:28 AM

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great welcome, this is a great place to learn a lot about bird-photography,
Nice first image and flight pose, I would try to get rid of the noise in the BG.
Welcome again!

Cheers,

[Dan Brown]

Welcome Brent! Nice capture. I agree that the noise is a problem. A few things that would improve your BIF (birds in flight) for the future would be,

try to have the sun at your back (the light here is coming from the extreme right side of the frame, creating a backlit situation),

try to capture the bird flying at you and not away (as is the case here)

and shooting earlier in the morning or later in the evening as the light would be less harsh (as is the case here IMO).

Again, welcome and keep'um coming!!:)

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Brent, Welcome to BPN. I like the position of the wings which gives us a view of the under side and top side of the wings. The image does look a little noisy. Was this cropped? If so, approximately how much? Just asking because I was curious if that might be the source of the noise I see. In my opinion the image would be stronger if the bird wasn't already past you and had been flying towards you instead of away. I look forward to seeing more of your images. Oh, I own both of Arthur Morris' Birds as Art books. Lots of good information in them. Thanks for sharing.

[Brent Wellander]

Thanks very much for the feedback...I can already see improvements I will be able to make from your suggestions. The original image size was 4752 x 3168, and cropped is 2626 x 1751.

Thanks again,

Brent

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Brent! I like the wing position and BG and agree regarding the bird flying away from you. I would have gone to f/5.6 or so and ISO 200 or 400 instead to avoid the noise. Keep them coming!

[Mike Tracy]

With your chosen aperture it helped to keep the heron in focus throughout although I agree with Axel you should open up a stop or two. In spite of flying away from you he is nicely positioned within the frame.

Was this with the EF500 or Sigmas zoom ?

[Brent Wellander]

Thanks very much for your feedback...I use a 50-500mm Sigma.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Welcome to BPN Brent, I am sure you will enjoy your time spent here. The big issues have already been covered (light angle, bird's flying away angle, and noise). Looking forward to more from you from beautiful B.C.

[Harshad Barve]

Big welcome to BPN Brent
Good advise given above and I am looking forward to see more from you
TFS

[Brent Wellander]

Thank you all for the welcome & feedback...I'll try to put your suggestions into practice.