Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Here are a few more images from my little Mullen fields from this morning. I am also including a couple shots from a couple weeks ago. Sorry for my absence lately, but I was on vacation a week ago.
I will start with a "usual" Western Meadowlark
Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:21 PM
A Vesper Sparrow
Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:23 PM
House Finch
Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:24 PM
Eastern Kingbird
Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:25 PM
I also managed to capture a behavior with this Eastern Kingbird, where they flip the insect to get them at a better angle for swallowing. I only wish I would have been on a higher ISO, because at 1/500 I got a little more motion blur than I wanted.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on June 18, 2011 at 11:27 PM
And for last, I decided to show an image without Mullen! Yet another Meadowlark.
Posted by Jack Garrett on June 19, 2011 at 12:53 AM
Excellent collection of images. Great compositions.
Posted by Laurie Wendt on June 19, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Very nice series, Kurt. I especially like how you got the birds to stand out with the extra soft focus of the background. Would you mind sharing your camera specs to achieve this?
Nice work Kurt! I especially like the 1st lark and Kingbird! Great catches and as always, great bg, poses and detail
Posted by Pam Colander on June 20, 2011 at 1:16 AM
Every time I see you've posted something, I know I'm gonna be in for another bout of "I absolutely suck at photography"!!! I wish there were a bowing emoticon cuz that's what I'm doing to these!
Posted by Rod Chandler on June 20, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Kurt, I hope you are sharing these with Colorado Outdoors Magazine. They don't pay much but your work would receive the attention it deserved. You are just the best at this. Did you use the car as the blind again? I have tried in and out of the car for meadowlarks with only okay results so far.
Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I really appreciate them and hope they are honest critiques. Rod, I haven't really tried to get any of my work published yet. I decided instead to try and focus on learning everything I can first and try to apply that knowledge to be the absolute best photographer I think I can be. I think I still have a lot of growth to do, but thank you for the vote of confidence.
To Laurie Wendt: My specs are different for each of these shots. To achieve this type of background, a few things come into factor.
- The camera and lens you use
- The distance from your subject
- The aperture you set
- The distance of the background from the subject
Since I don't have any idea of you current skill level Laurie, my first suggestion would be to get a Depth of Field table so you first understand based on the camera you are using, lens you are using and aperture you choose how much depth of field (DOF) you will achieve. Once you understand this, the other parts will then become more important in your work. I hope this helps and is not something you already understand, but I could type on this subject and take up a whole lot of space.
I'm shakin' my head right next to Todd.
I love how all of the birds are engaged in some sort of activity here.
Beautiful colors and exceptional bokeh! Your 'development' is pitch perfect with all of these. My only suggestion might be to tease out a bit more of the catchlight in the Kingbird's eye.
Remarkable work here, Kurt!
Great suggestion John and thank you for all the comments and critiques. I really appreciate them and they are actually something that motivates me to try and reach the highest level possible.
Discussion
25 repliesI will start with a "usual" Western Meadowlark
Bill Brennan
To Laurie Wendt: My specs are different for each of these shots. To achieve this type of background, a few things come into factor.
- The camera and lens you use
- The distance from your subject
- The aperture you set
- The distance of the background from the subject
Since I don't have any idea of you current skill level Laurie, my first suggestion would be to get a Depth of Field table so you first understand based on the camera you are using, lens you are using and aperture you choose how much depth of field (DOF) you will achieve. Once you understand this, the other parts will then become more important in your work. I hope this helps and is not something you already understand, but I could type on this subject and take up a whole lot of space.
I love how all of the birds are engaged in some sort of activity here.
Beautiful colors and exceptional bokeh! Your 'development' is pitch perfect with all of these. My only suggestion might be to tease out a bit more of the catchlight in the Kingbird's eye.
Remarkable work here, Kurt!