Great Egret Takeoff

Gallery: AvianPosted June 12, 201084 views9 comments

I captured this image of a Great Egret at the Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge near Oceanville, NJ. I took the shot from my window on a beanbag with a Nikon D70 and Tamron 200-500mm lens. I used an aperture of f/8 at 1/100second. This is my first post to the Avian gallery and I welcome all of your comments. Also, I can not seem to size my avatar small enough to get it to post.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on June 12, 2010 at 12:33 PM

Welcome to Avian and to NPN.

When I lived in NJ I never found Brigantine to be an easy place to shoot - the birds are usually much too far from the dike roads for good photography, and it is difficult to get a low shooting angle from the elevated roads.

f/8 at 1/100th second seems an unusual combination. What was your ISO? If you were at the lowest ISO of the D70 (ISO 100) this exposure setting is two stops more light than "sunny 16."

For a moving subject you'd be better off with a faster shutter speed than 1/100th, although this image doesn't appear to have suffered from too slow of a SS.

For a stronger image I'd prefer that the egret wasn't going away from the viewer. Or, at least, if it had more space in front for it to move into.

You'll need to make sure your avatar file is stripped of any EXIF data and color profile. If you are using Photoshop or PS Elements use the Save for Web option when saving the final small image.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on June 12, 2010 at 7:03 PM

Welcome to Avian Michael. I like the take off posture and feet dragging in the water. Agree with Richard that the image would be stronger if the bird wasn't going pretty much away from you. Very good sharpness for 1/100 with this active pose.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on June 12, 2010 at 8:33 PM

Nice first posting to this gallery, Michael. The pose of the bird is really outstanding: the head is clearly visible and the light shining through the wing is very attractive. 1/100 s is really slow for this kind of shot. However, I can't see any adverse effect of it on this image.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on June 13, 2010 at 2:10 AM

Welcome to Avian, Michel. Nice first post. I agree with Richard's comments. I look forward to more of your posts and your comments.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Kenneth Arni on June 13, 2010 at 6:29 AM

Thanks for posting Michael, This looks nice for the harsh light. I like the light coming through the wing. Agree with Richard, he covered it well.

Registered on December 24, 2008, 112 Posts, 629 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Dreese on June 13, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Thanks to everyone for your comments and critique. I aplogize for the misconception about the shutter speed. It was actually 1/1000second. I just missed a zero on the original post. I cropped a bit off the original photo so perhaps I should take another look and see if I could include more negative space to the left as suggested. Thanks again for the warm welcome and I look forward to posting more images soon.

Registered on June 1, 2010, 18 Posts, 51 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on June 13, 2010 at 5:20 PM

Michael,

Welcome to NPN's Avian Critique gallery, it is a great place to learn and share techniques.

I think the pose is interesting and I enjoy seeing the feet trailing in the water. I agree with the other who mentioned this would be a stronger image if the bird were not going away from the viewer. Some of the whites are hot, some negative exposure compensation at the time of creation may have helped with that as does shooting in early morning or late afternoon light.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on June 13, 2010 at 5:24 PM

Great take off shot. Nice backlight on the wing

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 13, 2010 at 8:12 PM

Welcome to NPN Michael, nice first post, agreed on a little more room on the left. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments