Egrets weren't home, but the Pelicans were

[MiniChris]

Will post these first, but when I am set up this coming week with all the new soft and hardware, will repost for comparison. I have all the RAW files. These were taken with the Tamron 70-300 Macro Zoom. I really have ot get a better zoom if I want to shoot birds. Still, these are okay and one of my first attempts at getting them on the "fly."
Comments are aways appreciated and advice often used.

[Skitalez]

And what focal length? Did a picture without a Tripod? by hands?
I like 2nd one)))))

[MiniChris]

And what focal length? Did a picture without a Tripod? by hands?
I like 2nd one)))))

70-200mm lens at 135mm hand-held, 1/400 @5.6 THe others were shot at vaying focal lengths, mostly in the 220-300mm range and all handheld. I think on the flying shots, I was at f:/8

[mythlady]

These are great -- it's really hard to be a bird photographer, particularly a bird-in-flight photographer. #3 is excellent. I also like #2. What kind of pelicans are these? We get "ordinary" pelicans (don't know what kind), and American White pelicans, which are really beautiful. But they're not around all the time.

[MiniChris]

The ones I shot the most of, but didn't post were white with yellow tops which I think signifies they're still puppies (or whatever you call young birds). This one was a brown Louisiana pelican, the most common one we have here. I think the one who is posing, might be one I assisted with a fishhook problem a couple of years ago as he showed absolutely no fear of me when I was shooting, that or he is a pelican who hangs around the fish docks, which are generally full of people and has lost that natural skittishness.
I think I did okay for my first real birding shots, especially those flying about. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Thank goodness I have a camera that shoots 6 frames per second - except when it comes to editing. It's amazing how many frames you can burn through a camera with that kind of capability.
Thanks for the encouragement.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Chris,

I like trying to catch bird sin flight and the only way to perfect it is to keep practising. It is like panning without the slow shutter.

I like #2 and #3 the best and with your new software you will be able to lighten shadow details and add contrast and sharpening. You WILL notice the difference so don’t throw these images out.

A lot of people have told me you need to focus manually for birds in flight but I can’t do that. I use currently use my 70 – 300 zoom and set the autofocus on infinity by focusing on something about 100 metres or so away. This way the autofocus motor does not have to go ‘hunting’ for the focus once the bird is detected. If the focus is set on something close to you it takes too long for the autofocus to latch onto the bird.

Good hunting. This is the best way t shoot birds.

[MiniChris]

For the most part, these were shot in a locale that had lots of trees in and arond the scene. I tried the long focus idea and with the two I show in flight, it worked great, but some of the others went a little strange because as I was in the pan mode, if I got a little ahead of the bird, the autofocus would try for the next closest object, which invaribly was a tree.
It is a learning experience and I am enjoying it.