Posted by eric weight on December 5, 2007 at 10:16 AM
There, done it at last; or at least I hope I have. Having been one of the much-maligned lurkers watching this forum twice a day for the last six months, I have finally plucked up the courage to join in. I have been taking photographs of wildlife for a year or so now but feel that the last six months of watching this forum have improved my pictures so obviously that I feel it is time to put something back.
So here is one to kick off with that I took at Chew Valley reservoir in October. A vast shoal of fry was being mercilessly hammered by grebes, gulls, pike and perch and out of the many pictures I took, this was the one that I liked best, I think I would of preferred it a bit higher in the picture so that I could have included more reflection, but it's too late now.
C&C welcome
Cheers
Eric
400D 100-400 @400
1/500 f/11 hand held
RAW CS2 USM 150/0.8/2
n/n applied to background
cropped l/s to portrait
Eric
Posted by Andrew Stagg on December 5, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Hi Eric,
Nice shot - from a place I know well. As you say a fraction higher would be great. But catching those guys in flight is hard work and you have a very good effort there. Are you a Chew valley local or from further afield?
Andrew
Posted by eric weight on December 5, 2007 at 10:33 AM
I'm from the Leicester area Andrew. We were down for the fishing which was great as well. Lovely part of the world I thought.
Posted by Graeme Lee on December 5, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Hi Eric, Nice post. Agree higher in the frame would improve this. I would also chop some off the top as the thirds rule may help? Have a go, it may not work or it might
Posted by Barry Southon on December 5, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Eric
Great shot to start with welcome from another shy lurker.
Barry
Posted by Andy Astbury on December 5, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Welcome Eric
Nice capture - uncle Graeme has covered all the bases so there's not a lot left to say - except keep posting
I'll disagree with the others and go so far as to say I like it as-is. There is plenty of room for creative cropping, or for dropping in text around the bird.
Welcome to the forum and a very fine shot to begin posting with.I especially like the movement you've captured in the wings
A great species that always presents many wonderful oppurtunities for good behavioural shots, such as this.
A super pic - I like the reflections. Let's see some more. Welcome
Posted by Mark Sisson on December 6, 2007 at 4:54 AM
Welcome aboard Eric - look forward to seeing more and a good first post. Composition all depends on your market imo - is it "as an image" or for commercial use with space for text. Both are right in their own way.
Mark
Posted by Andrew Stagg on December 6, 2007 at 5:21 AM
Were you pike fishing by any chance Eric?
Posted by eric weight on December 6, 2007 at 7:36 AM
Thank you all for your kind replies. With regards cropping your pictures, What size do you like to crop to? Do you tend to crop for effect regrdless of shape or to a standard such as A4? I would like very much to settle on a workflow for my pictures and at the moment I do everything in RAW except sharpening and noise reduction which I do in Cs2. Then I end up with as many as 7 files for each pic.CR2, xmp, original jpeg, adjusted jpeg, and maybe a couple of 30x21 cm crops from that. I understand that professionals make tiffs from the RAW files but my workflow is already consuming lots of hard drive space as it is.
Andrew - we were after perch to be honest, but we caught plenty of pike in the process. Big fish of both species as well. E-mail me if you want to talk fishing, I don't want to send all these people to sleep over their monitors!
Posted by Dave Sewell on December 6, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Nice first post Eric, lots of movement and space in which to appreciate it which I love. Your workflow sounds a bit complicated I have to say! Andy Astbury is the man to ask about this.
Something I do to prevent slowing down my computer with loads of images is I download onto an external hard drive and edit from there.
What part of Leicestershire do you hail from? I grew up in Desford so I know the county well!
Cheers,
Dave
Posted by eric weight on December 6, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Hello Dave, I'm an ex-pat Londoner really, but I live at Higham on the Hill, so I know Desford pretty well as it is only about 10 miles away. Where have you moved off to?
How about it then Andy? I press the shutter, download my pics, dump the rubbish and process the rest. What do I keep? I have to get this sorted sooner or later otherwise I will end up with a lot of wasted space on my hard drive. Any advice gratefully received.
Discussion
18 repliesSo here is one to kick off with that I took at Chew Valley reservoir in October. A vast shoal of fry was being mercilessly hammered by grebes, gulls, pike and perch and out of the many pictures I took, this was the one that I liked best, I think I would of preferred it a bit higher in the picture so that I could have included more reflection, but it's too late now.
C&C welcome
Cheers
Eric
400D 100-400 @400
1/500 f/11 hand held
RAW CS2 USM 150/0.8/2
n/n applied to background
cropped l/s to portrait
Eric
Nice shot - from a place I know well. As you say a fraction higher would be great. But catching those guys in flight is hard work and you have a very good effort there. Are you a Chew valley local or from further afield?
Andrew
Great shot to start with welcome from another shy lurker.
Barry
Nice capture - uncle Graeme has covered all the bases so there's not a lot left to say - except keep posting
Welcome from me too. A nice first post, and I agree with the comment above.
Best wishes
Phil
A nice first post, I practically like the reflected water on the underside of the bird.
I'll disagree with the others and go so far as to say I like it as-is. There is plenty of room for creative cropping, or for dropping in text around the bird.
A nice first post.
Frederic
Ian
A great species that always presents many wonderful oppurtunities for good behavioural shots, such as this.
Mark
Andrew - we were after perch to be honest, but we caught plenty of pike in the process. Big fish of both species as well. E-mail me if you want to talk fishing, I don't want to send all these people to sleep over their monitors!
Something I do to prevent slowing down my computer with loads of images is I download onto an external hard drive and edit from there.
What part of Leicestershire do you hail from? I grew up in Desford so I know the county well!
Cheers,
Dave
How about it then Andy? I press the shutter, download my pics, dump the rubbish and process the rest. What do I keep? I have to get this sorted sooner or later otherwise I will end up with a lot of wasted space on my hard drive. Any advice gratefully received.