The early bird gets its picture took!

[ucci]

Okay. First off. Confession time! I didn't take this shot. It is one of Mrs ucci's. So why am I posting her work? Well, she has this total paranoia about posting her work on line. It is a lack of self confidence thing. But sometimes she comes up with something which IMHO demands to be shared! So that's why! And I feel this is one such.

Okay. Another confession. As far as photography is concerned, with mrs ucci I have a relationship built on mistrust and personal animosity! I resent her magic eye to instantly frame shots which take me forever and a day and with which I am never as good. She brings a whole new meaning to ' just point and shoot!' Sometimes as a result I reckon I should divorce her. But then I think, why should I make her so happy? It is not easy being married to such a talent. Husbands can be such a sorry lot! I remember a critique of a shot I posted here, of which I was fairly proud. And was promptly told to be honest. It was one, it was suggested by one cheeky person, that was actually taken taken by mrs ucci, as my photography was just not that good!

ps For those who want to know. It is a mixed mob of Cockatoos and Corella's If you peer closely enough the Corellas are the ones with the red patch around the eye.
Thanks for viewing and for any comments.
Happy and safe Easter to all.
Old ucci

[Shadowman]

Composition is nice, Mrs. Ucci's position to the sun could be reversed as most of the scene is backlit. Sure there is definition of shape in the trees, but the birds are just shady forms. Underexposing the image a bit might bring out more form.

[Wavelength]

That is a nice frame. I think it is side lit. Congrats to Mrs. Ucci

[Geoff F]

Firstly the easy bit, Ken. Composition is good. Focus looks OK as well.

Your problem, as previously mentioned, is the light angle; also white birds are very difficult to expose correctly when in a mixed landscape scene like this. So you are bound to lose some of the fine detail of the birds.

This tends to produce something of a bright halo like surround to the birds; but there isn't really anything that can be done to totally correct this issue. There is a bird hide that I visit where I frequently struggle with the same problem and the only way I can achieve any success is to wait until a single bird positions itself perfectly to the light angle.

So this image has gone as far as is possible with the conditions, and the slight imperfections due to lighting aren't really that serious.

[dem]

I think that the main problem here is the haze. There is a good dehazing tool in Photoshop, whereas using "Auto Colour" or similar option in other packages will also partially resolve the problem.

Assuming the birds are about 10 cm long, we are looking at a frame approximately 2 meters by 2.7 meters. At a focal length of 285 mm ff equivalent, this places the scene at about 25 meters away from the camera. This is too much air to shoot through and this air affects both the sharpness and colour saturation. Getting as close as possible would be the best solution.

"Zoom with your feet" as they say. I'm sure you'll pass the message on

On the plus side, I think that the image is as good as it gets under these shooting conditions. Well done.

[FootLoose]

Assuming the birds are about 10 cm long,

More like 30 cm, Dem. And I would guess the crown of the tree is at least 10m across.

[FootLoose]

Classic bush scene, Ken. Compliments to the Missus

[ucci]

Thank you all for most helpful feedback. Much appreciated. Just to clarify. The scene was almost side lit, early morning. The tree was around 150 metres away and the crown at least 10 metres span, if not more. And any closer approach would have resulted in instant bird take off. With these birds there is no time to fuss around setting up the best "capture." It has to be a quick shot of opportunity, or the moment is lost.

[dem]

More like 30 cm, Dem. And I would guess the crown of the tree is at least 10m across.

Argh... Thanks. Got it wrong by a factor of 3 as a result. Should have googled the bird size first.