novice two months on

[sleipnerofasgard]

well i suppose i might as well have another peek over the parapet,just a few pictures from today but first i would like to explain my philosophy such as it is;
every time i take my camera out my only aim is to take a better picture of whatever i see than any i currently have even though they may not be perfect,if they were i guess i would not need to come on here asking for advice.so with that in mind here are the best of the day









i was going to say be gentle but that would not be very helpful to me
anyhoo just wait until i can afford a bigger lens

[Ollie]

Hi sleipnerofasgard. Well as far as I can see your photos are only lacking one thing realy and that is they are a touch too small in the frame for me. this is only my personal opinion though and others may disagree.

I can't remember what camera or lens you are using but it's no doubt down to the fact that the lens or camera hasn't quite enough reach. If this is the case then you just need to try and get a little closer to the subject. I do really like the Buzzard one its a very nice shot of a bird you don't catch perched that often. The Stonechat is quite nice as well.

The photos are all birds that are not that common. Don't get me wrong they are not rare but I for one would be pleased to see Stonechat, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard and Tree Sparrow, so you are obviously finding the birds. I think if you get a longer lens your photos will definitely be up with the best. Hope I haven't been too critical.
Roger

[buzfuz8149]

I can only agree with Ollie, I think I would be happy to see any of the birds, as to the photos I put the best of what I've got for my record/diary, if I get a better shot later I use that.
I just keep taking photos - the other morning I took 50+ shots of one female blackbird and I only kept 1.

I would have been glad to have taken the Tree Sparrows on the table not a common bird around here.

Carol.

[sleipnerofasgard]

thanks for the comments and i agree about the lens i am hoping soon to get the sigma 50-500 or bigma as they call it and as i take on average about 150-200 shots per day not every day of course as i have to work to pay for this hobby and if i get three out of that i am absolutely delighted
i try to put the picture on with only the basic touching up in picasa ie cropping,filling light,highlighting and colour adjustment .i have put some pictures through neat image but i am never completely satisfied with them most of the pics were taken at the long end(is that how you say it?) and still heavily cropped my lens is 300 and if i can get close enough i will try to extend it as far as is needed without going above the f4.5 as in this shot of a reed bunting i had the camera set on tav for shutter and aperture priority where the focal length was 220 the iso was automatic at 400 and the exposure 1/180 and apart from the noise it came out reasonably ok but i may try it through neat image to see if it can be improved
cheers

[Brocker]

Hi sleipnerofasgard. Tricky this bird photography isn't it. I guess the bit that surprised me was that it doesn't matter how big your lens, what will give you a great picture is fieldcraft and of course, patience. Don't get me wrong, equipment matters a great deal and certainly helps. From your pictures it looks like you are just very slightly outside the optimum range for the lens and as the others have said, the kind of birds you are snapping are interesting and not overly common. Below is a shot of a stonechat that was taken yesterday. I used Canon 100-400mm lens on a 1D mark 3 body but there is still some noise because it was shot at 400mm. I find that 380mm creates better sharpness. In this case I needed to be closer. It was shot at 1/125, F5.6 with an ISO of 320. I also shot it in RAW which gives must more control before turning it to a jpeg. I will guarantee though, you will improve with every outing. Good luck.