Reddish With Minnow

Gallery: AvianPosted March 29, 2011315 views17 comments

I just ran across this from Ding Darling a couple of years back while I was looking for something else. This fellow was content to wait along one of the tidal inlets for whatever was coming by.

1D MK IIN 500 F4 w 1.4x ISO 200 1/640 F11 on tripod with Sidekick IS on.

Comments

17 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 29, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Love the action and lighting here Rick. To my eye the head doesn't look tack sharp. I imagine the movement of the bird was too fast for your shutter speed to freeze well, less depth of field and/or a higher iso would have helped there I think.

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

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on March 29, 2011 at 9:48 PM

Nice action shot, Rick. I love the splash of water. Beautiful light. It does look just a tad bit soft.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on March 29, 2011 at 10:43 PM

Really nice pose, colors and water drops. Soft head mentionned.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Marc Dubuc on March 29, 2011 at 11:16 PM

Very nice picture. I like the action with the water!

Registered on January 4, 2011, 59 Posts, 229 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Canning on March 29, 2011 at 11:17 PM

Nice light and action. Particularly like the water drops. F11? Might have gone for more shutter speed.

Registered on February 10, 2004, 88 Posts, 549 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Walters on March 30, 2011 at 12:22 AM

Nice color and I like the water coming off the bill.

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on March 30, 2011 at 12:35 AM

Sweet light and great capture. Nits already noted. But even with the nits, I'd be happy to have this in my portfolio.

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

Comment posted by Angela McCain on March 30, 2011 at 1:29 AM

Lovely bird and I like the lifted wing for a look at the under feathers there. Softness in the head and lack of detail there makes me think the focal point was on the body. That 1/640s speed would not seem to explain the problem IMO.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 30, 2011 at 2:21 AM

A little soft on the head and eye or not, I'd be over the moon to have this in my collection Rick; what a beautiful Egret and I love the frozen droplets of water :^)

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on March 30, 2011 at 6:39 AM

I really like the lighting on the bird and the contrast between the bird and the water and how the water droplets stand out, too.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 30, 2011 at 7:21 AM

A great bird and action Rick. To me it looks like a couple of things combined to produce a somewhat soft image. I agree with others that f/11 was overkill on a subject like this. f/8, or even f/7.1 probably would have been fine. I have found that at f/11 with a total of 700mm that diffraction issues start to degrade IQ resulting is overall soft subjects. Also, the relatively slow SS for this type of action added to the softness. Generally, for a shot like this I like an f/ around 7.1 and a SS up around 1/1250s. Just some suggestions. Cheers.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 30, 2011 at 8:41 AM

The water droplets help give this a feel of action that I really like. I agree with Nate about the SS causing motion blur on the head though. I might have set my aperture to 6.3 or 7.1 max on this one...especially if you wanted to stay on ISO 200.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on March 30, 2011 at 11:35 AM

Great moment to freeze, Rick. The water droplets add a lot to this image. Nice light, pose and comp.

Second Nate's comment on the sharpness of the head and going with a smaller aperture. Rest of the egret seem sharp.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Harbour on March 30, 2011 at 12:23 PM

Beautiful colors and lighting. Nice action with the water splash.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Dottie Short on March 30, 2011 at 2:31 PM

I almost didn't post my Reddish Egret because I think your lighting and action is much better than mine. But 'I can take it'. Nice action, light, and composition. Dottie

Registered on April 12, 2010, 61 Posts, 375 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Cloran on March 30, 2011 at 4:13 PM

Thanks for the comments guys and gals. I suspect that it lies somewhere between the shutter being a little too slow and a bit of body bias in the focus gvien that he is facing away from me slightly. I had always been leery of pushing ISO too hard, but now that I have the Mark IV that concern has gone away. From what I have been seeing in the posts, you've also convinced me that I have been overly cautious in trying to sink an extra stop into the aperture rather than the shutter.

Ron, thanks for the added thought about the degradation you've observed on the 500 / 1.4x combination. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

Registered on April 6, 2004, 119 Posts, 1989 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 30, 2011 at 9:57 PM

Great moment, Rick. I love the water drops and the pose is perfect.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments