Willet enjoying a crab brunch

[Cathy McEntee]

Had a great time watching this willet catch crabs yesterday. Hand held from kayak Nikon D90, 70-300 mm with 1.4 TC, 1/800, 5.6, ISO 500. Manual exp. C&C welcome.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Cathy,

Love the kayak approach, nice field technique. Nice moment in nature and good capture. Main feedback would be, check your background and keep it simple not distracting. This can be a real challenge, but often by moving the frame around we can make picture much stronger. Some times photographers can become to reliant on the center sensor too. This can cause the subject to be too centered as well and/or include unwanted background elements. Picture might have a hot spot or two on the bottom tail, overall nice job with exposure.

Did you sharpen, HHing on a moving current can cause images to be soft. Did you use a sevo mode to handle constant motion. On Canon bodies, we have Al-Servo mode to handle motion. As you know birds are always moving, even when still. I might crop some from the top and clean up some spots in the water. Thanks for sharing and keep em coming.

[John Chardine]

Neat image Cathy! It looks like the big crab has caught a little crab. You did well to catch the action. There are a couple of aspects of the image that could be improved. The subject does not look particularly sharp. This could be some motion blur but you are pushing the limits of the 70-300 by putting a 1.4 tc on it so that could be part of the issue. Anyway I tried some sharpening and it did improve the image. Give it a try. Do you have any with the head turned a little towards you? As it is the head angle is a bit flat. A better head angle would provide more interest to the image. Another thing I would suggest while I'm here is to, if possible, move or wait until the subject moves to get more even lighting- notice how the sun is coming over your left shoulder which results in the throat and breast being in shadow.

[Cathy McEntee]

Hi Jeff - thanks very much for your suggestions and observations. I don't use my D90 often and noticed it was on AF-A, the mode which choses whether the subject is stationary or moving. Should have been on AF-C. I did
sharpen the image in LR, but will do more in CS5 when I get a chance. Will take your advice about center sensor and being more aware of the background.

[Cathy McEntee]

Hi John - I believe you are right about the tc on this lens. I've tried it a couple of times with less than favorable results on the kayak. I've avoided taking a bigger lens on the kayak, but next time i will. I will try some sharpening when I get the chance.

Your suggestion regarding waiting for more even light is well received. I do have a shot with a better head angle, but the eye is closed.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Cathy, good points made above by Jeff and John. Main points to my eye are the sun angle, overall sharpness, and head angle. I love the irony of the bird catching a crab that has also caught something, that's really interesting. Looking forward to more of your shots, don't hold back!