Click Ponds - Viera Florida - 06-05-2011

[spngr311]

Took some more pictures this weekend at the Click Ponds. I'm still waiting for my 70-200 to get here, so these are still using my 75-300. Critique will be appreciated (even if it is to stop posting these pics!).









I am heart broken about this picture. I really wish I didn't cut the head off of the reflection!!!








Any recommendations on how I cropped this one:

[xalupa]

1,3,6,7,8 i like them all.

[spngr311]

Thanks Gonzalo. Number 7 is an adult of 8 - which is supposedly a common bird, but that is the only shot of an adult black crowned night heron that I have ever gotten!

[jiro]

Among all of them, I think the most exceptional shot was #1 on both the composition and the subject. The rest seems to be too tightly cropped (for me, that is) and perhaps some extra negative space inside the frame wouldn't hurt to balance the composition. Having had my baptism of fire shooting birds inside a Zoo, I know it's really pretty tough to nail these kinds of shot unless you have all the time in the world and the patience to wait for that right kind of pose and lighting.

[spngr311]

Thank Jiro. I do have a tendancy to crop my subjects a little tight, I have to work on that. I always feel that the picture doesn't look interesting to me when there is a lot of empty space (like with the Osprey or Black Crowned Night Heron). I tried to utilize the rule of thirds as close as I could, but I was having trouble Sunday night for some reason - I guess the aspect ratio of the crop was throwing me off relative to the images of the birds I captured. I tend to use 8:5 for it, as I use my images on my PC, and hardly get them printed.

The lighting is close to "right" for most of the birds on the ground or in the water. The images were captured between 6-8 with the sun behind me (+/- 15* relative to the line of sight from me to the birds). Kind of text book, but my exposure was not necessarily right. I got out there at the right time.

I tried to be patient, I really wanted to get more images of the birds with fish, but only got one I liked. I kept watching that Osprey for over an hour fly overhead. He'd swoop in, but wouldn't get a fish! Such a tease! I also wish I could've gotten a little lower and closer to the water, but my wife got a picture of a diamond back rattle snake in the mud a little later, so I think my position was prudent.