Some Recent Wildlife Shots - Viera Wetlands, FL

[spngr311]

Hey all,

I haven't been shooting or posting much, been busy with work, but finally finished up my major project and got out to the Viera Wetlands this weekend. Didn't get much, but it felt good to snap a few off!

I cropped this image tight, but I thought about cropping it more so the gator was the only thing really showing, thoughts?



I normally don't shoot at this ISO (1600), but I really wanted to get this rabbit:



What did I do wrong with the following image? It just feels a bit soft. It was shot at 300mm at f5.6:

[Geoff F]

The first photo looks fine to me,Rob.

I would consider cropping the second one on the right side and possibly changing the size ratio to suit. But I'm not sure.

With the third slightly soft image, did you auto or manually focus? I wonder if the camera auto focused on the harder edged grass instead of the soft bird. And with only F5.6 your depth of field would be quite shallow. Alternatively, what shutter speed?

I may consider a crop on the cormorant photo. It seems a little lost at the moment. Once again changing the ratio may help.

But all in all, there isn't a lot wrong with these photos.

[spngr311]

I struggled with cropping the inahinga, but I didn't want to go in too far. I will probably try it a little differently. As far as the heron shot, I think it was 1/1000 or faster. It was around 1030, which is a little late in the morning for my tastes. I was looking at my wife's shots of the same bird and I think it may actually be some tall grass. The dof is blurring them in front of the bird. The aperture may have been a little wide, I have to work at trying different apertures. I have a tendency to shoot wildlife at wide open (5.6 on my current lens).