Finches

Hi,

I am pretty new to the community and new to photography as well.
Would like to have your comments on some of the photos that I took yesterday evening in Loveland.
Please let me know how I can improve ..
It is wonderful to see the pictures posted here from experienced photographers ..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30774043@N06/sets/72157623573806271/

(You may have to copy the url and paste it on the browser)

Thanks,
Soubhik

Thanks Todd.

Hope this works

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4463169927_4527ee75f9_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4463931038_b7d9dfaf69_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4463169897_7a5e7501d9_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4463931052_f1dba43657_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4463169893_b158289eca_b.jpg

Hi Soubhik, The inflight shot is my favorite. Actually the bird in each of these photos is an American Robin which is in the Thrush family of birds (not a finch). Finches are generally half the size of a Robin.
Most of your images would benefit from adding some fill flash to brighten their feathers, without darkening the backgrounds. This brings up another point and that is choosing simpler backgrounds, less cluttered backgrounds. This can be accomplished by being very observant of how close the background is to the bird in comparison to how close you are to the bird. When the photographer to bird distance is smaller than the bird to background distance you will be able to throw the background out of focus enough to render a more uniform colored background. This is easier to accomplish with a longer telephoto lens, which is why many bird photographers use lenses in the 400 to 600mm range. Using blue sky backgrounds for perched birds or in flight birds helps to simplify backgrounds as well, but this means having to shoot with the sun at your back so the blue sky doesn't wash out.

Keep shooting, and critiquing your results, and improvement will happen quickly. You already have a good eye for subject matter.

A nice little collection you got there.

Don gave you some very good advice, and for just starting out you captured the Robin well. Bird photography is not easy at all, but you can get great results with some patience, learning the species and their behaviour, and did I say patience .

Or you could just do this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30774043@N06/sets/72157623573806271/

I really like the one with the bird taking off.

Thanks a lot Don, Brian, Nick and Todd for looking at the photos.
We don't have much Robins / Finches in India so still struggling with identification ( I am from India). Thanks a lot again for your advice, I am shooting with a canon 75-300 zoom lens ( not IS ) , so unless I reach within 10 / 15 feet of the subject , don't get a frame filling subject.
Will surely click more and post ...

Hey Don, not to derail the purpose of this post, but do you have any recommendations on flash extenders to use with a long range telephoto to get the light to the subject? What is the max range on these?

I like the last image. You got a little closer and you have the subject parallel to the light, which results in no unwanted shadows. The more you are out there shooting, the better your images will become!

Koveh: The Better Beamer is the flash extender almost everyone who photographs birds uses. You can get it from the guy who makes them:

http://www.synvis.com/FlashXtender.htm

or at a host of other websites, including Amazon.

It adds about 3 fstops of light and I've used mine on subjects over 40 feet away . You need a minimum of a 300mm lens to ensure the field of view is inside the concentrated rectangle of light that it puts out. Although you can sometimes get away with a shorter lens if the subject is perched in a tree where there isn't a uniform background that will be lit by the flash.

Thanks Dan.

Thanks Don for the info.