Birds... A Few I Worked On Recently

[jprzybyla]

I have been going through my files, deleting some and reworking others. These are a few I worked on recently. C&C welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

P.S. I have listed the lenses used so Suzan could see that there is very little difference.

Tri-colored Heron... Nikon 55-200mm



Tri-colored Heron... Nikon 55-300mm



Sand Hill Crane... Nikon 70.300mm



Brown Pelican... Nikon 70-300mm



Palm Warbler... Nikon 70-300mm



As you can see the image quality of the lenses are very close. The only difference is the bells and whistles that a pro lens offers. Such as maybe a little faster focusing, ability to manually override auto-focus, and a distance scale. The distance scale allows one to see at what distance the camera is set to focus at. The manual focus override allows one to estimate the distance to the subject and to quickly set that distance to help the camera focus ( less searching ).

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[gratefulgordons]

Nice shots...the sand hill crane seems an ugly subject, yet the shot is somehow pleasant. A good sense of colors and composition I suppose. Nice work and thanks for the tips. To make sure I understand correctly though, you are saying manual focus override allows you to focus manually in a general area first so that the auto will grab quicker to subjects in that vicinity? Thanks joe

[flashback]

Joe these are all spectacular. I love #1 as it looks like a Japanese water color. And that pelican...absolutely a gorgeous shot. Kind of what I'd expect in a glossy brochure for the new model Pelican.

[deetheturk]

Superb as usual Joe,great series!

[jprzybyla]

Nice series.

Thanks John, very much appreciated.

[Downrigger]

Great series, Joe. I especially like the color and light in some of these. The last is almost magical. Manual focus override helps me override a "false" focus if your spot grabs a bid of foreground or background instead of the subject itself. I find I often fail to use it for that, when I should have.

[jprzybyla]

Nice shots...the sand hill crane seems an ugly subject, yet the shot is somehow pleasant. A good sense of colors and composition I suppose. Nice work and thanks for the tips. To make sure I understand correctly though, you are saying manual focus override allows you to focus manually in a general area first so that the auto will grab quicker to subjects in that vicinity? Thanks joe

Hello Brett, welcome to CIC. Thank you for viewing and commenting. Regarding your question... say my focus is set up near infinity anticipating a bird in flight and I see a dragonfly I want to photograph. I know I will shoot the dragonfly at about 5 feet the minimum focusing distance for my lens. So I look at the distance scale on the lens and using the manual override of the autofocus I turn the the focusing ring until approximately 5 feet is lined up the distance indicator. This allows the camera to quickly focus. When finished shooting the dragonfly I will set it back near infinity anticipating my next shot will be there. The closer you can manually set the distance the quicker the camera will focus without hunting.

[jprzybyla]

Joe these are all spectacular. I love #1 as it looks like a Japanese water color. And that pelican...absolutely a gorgeous shot. Kind of what I'd expect in a glossy brochure for the new model Pelican.

Thank you Jack, your viewing and commenting are very much appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Superb as usual Joe,great series!

Thanks David, much appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Great series, Joe. I especially like the color and light in some of these. The last is almost magical. Manual focus override helps me override a "false" focus if your spot grabs a bid of foreground or background instead of the subject itself. I find I often fail to use it for that, when I should have.

Thanks Mark, I appreciate you viewing and commenting. Being able to set the approximate focus distance manually really can speed up focusing.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Joe ,you are an expert on shooting birds. Excellent shots

[Suzan J]

Hello Joe: Thanks so much for posting the lens info. I appreciate the advice. As usual, this series is a work of art. I particularly like the sharpness of the palm warbler along with the pastel green background. Just lovely.

[John 2]

Another good series Joe. I'm running out of things to say. The Palm Warbler is just sublime.

[FrankMi]

A great set Joe, but for me the Palm Warbler is right over the top!

Edit: I thought I had seen that image before but although it was the same bird on the same branch, the pose was slightly different and the crop was landscape. I think the other rendition was a bit more vibrant but both images are outstanding!

[FootLoose]

I love the elegant simplicity of the composition of the first shot, Joe. Beautiful colours, too, but I wonder how it would be in black and white.

Also, I find there is something strangely narcissistic in that second one.

[Brownbear]

All beautiful with gorgeous light and colour. My favourite is the 1st image for the dreamy art-like look. Followed by #2 for the incredible capture of the moment, and #3 for the same reason (and also because I love pelicans)

[Bobobird]

Great set as usual Joe.

[jprzybyla]

Hi Joe ,you are an expert on shooting birds. Excellent shots

Thank you Binnur, your viewing and comments are greatly appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Hello Joe: Thanks so much for posting the lens info. I appreciate the advice. As usual, this series is a work of art. I particularly like the sharpness of the palm warbler along with the pastel green background. Just lovely.

Hello Suzan, thank you for viewing and commenting. The Palm Warbler I named Tap a Tap. From January through March it would come ever day to a Bottle Brush Tree outside our window and fly up and tap of the window, again and again... all day long. I photographed it from inside the house through the window glass.