Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: wmchauncey on July 31, 2013, 08:33:57 pm
-
Sometimes ya just get lucky...what with them all in focus...five images then photomerged.
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/5-egrets-to-west-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/5-egrets-to-west-copy.jpg.html)
-
This is not a criticism, just my curiosity: why is the lead bird's neck not extended?
Ciao,
Doug
-
My bad, I should have been more clear...this is one bird as it traverses the pond. I merely merged the individual images into one long one. That day I got eleven individual shots from the same flight during that journey across the pond.
As a point of reference, the following is a 800 x800 px crop @ 300ppi of one of the images.
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/egret-800-px-crop.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/egret-800-px-crop.jpg.html)
-
Suspicions confirmed! I've seen a lot of egrets in flight and I have more than a hundred pictures of egrets in flight, but I've never seen egrets flying in formation.
-
This is not a criticism, just my curiosity: why is the lead bird's neck not extended?
Ciao,
Doug
Hi Doug:
The OP can confirm this, but it looks like the bird is just lifting off from a tree branch and coming out of the initial drop in order to gain some altitude before colliding with whatever lies ahead. As such s/he will be starting to shift the body a bit, and using those powerful wingbeats for lift. Geese tend to fly with their necks outstretched whereas herons/egrets fly with their necks in an 'S' shape.
Mike.
-
Not my best combining technique, but this is what they looked like crossing the pond after takeoff from a branch.
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/11-Egrets-from-tree.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/11-Egrets-from-tree.jpg.html)
Buffer filled up after 11 images.
-
Appreciate your comment, Mike. I'm no Egret expert and simply had never seen one with the neck tucked in as it appears in the OP's post of the capture sequence.
For what it's worth I offer my own version of an Egret on take off at full throttle :).
Ciao,
Doug
-
As a follow-up, I got these tonight
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/3-egrets-rising-8-7-13-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/3-egrets-rising-8-7-13-copy.jpg.html)
-
Very nice!
-
Thanks Russ...it's really easy to blow out the whites when shooting into a dark background. ;)
-
How well I know, and you're controlling the problem beautifully. This guy was close. I just checked Lightroom and it tells me I have 171 pictures of egrets (not all in flight).
-
As a follow-up, I got these tonight
That's a beautiful shot! Well done indeed.
Jeremy
-
Thanks for the accolades guys. I got my start with Great Blue Herons in flight...got a ton of those as well.
Because of their coloring and their normal foliage background, I've never been able to develop a method of PP to accentuate the bird from the background.
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/all-ten-new.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/all-ten-new.jpg.html)
That represents but one, of many, failed attempts. At 300 ppi, that image is over 4 1/2 feet long. Suggestions would be appreciated on the accentuation aspect.
-
One solution is to catch him against the water.
-
As a follow up to this post, and it's happened before, but I didn't equate the events.
I take a lot of Egret images waiting for them to fly...I want the BIF series to photo-merge. Anyway, I'm sitting there waiting and clicking...getting this
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/egret-on-branch-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/egret-on-branch-copy.jpg.html)
He then has a moment of indiscretion, he takes a dump and I start to laugh, losing him in the viewfinder and my series shot is gone.
Moral of story...if they take a dump, they are gonna take off.
First time it happened, I didn't see it until I downloaded the image...kind of embarrassing.
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/300.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/300.jpg.html)
-
He then has a moment of indiscretion, he takes a dump and I start to laugh, losing him in the viewfinder and my series shot is gone.
You reminded me of this one of mine. Can we start a "taking a dump" thread?
Perhaps not.
Jeremy
-
Thank you, no, Jeremy.
-
Thank you, no, Jeremy.
In that case definitely do not look at this encounter between a stork and a sparrow (http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/08/splat-bird-of-spray-lets-fly-to-evict-sparrow-3917473/) 8)
-
Yeah right don't look...how do they aim that well? ;D