Merced Wildlife Shots - C&C Please

[LPLIV]

Hi All:

As you can see from my post count I am really new here especially for those of you in the thousands. I have posted a small album of shots from the Merced CA Wildlife Refuge, they were all taken with my new (used) Tamron 200-500 tele lens. I enjoy wildlife and macro photography the most but don't have a macro lens yet.
Please feel free to add your critique to my pics, I welcome the positive stuff.. As I am very interested in learning to be a better photographer I am eager to hear from those of you who are interested in helping me grow.

Thanks for your input...

Phil

[LPLIV]

Can't seem to figure out how to post pics on this web site... sorry

[LPLIV]

One more time
I think that I finally figured it out... The first shot is with my old 70-300G, the rest are from the Tamron 200-500.. I have noticed that the shots do not come out as sharp when they are posted here, not sure why... At this point I am just happy that I was able to post them... Please feel free to C&C, I would appreciate the input. Most of the shots are from 10 yds. (the little bird) to 100- yds away. (Three storks.. )






Thanks for your input and suggestions... The shots with theTamron were the second day of shooting and I had the ISO boundries set to high. (3200) They should have been at a maximum of 400 or so... Thanks again..

Phil

[wfooshee]

I rather like the first one. Lot of yellow, though. Is that how it looked, or have you played with the colors? And it took me a minute (I'm sleepy, I guess) to realize I was looking at trillions of birds on the water. Somewhere my brain was saying, "Wow, those are some weird looking rocks!"

The last one is nice, a lot of depth-of-field, maybe a result of your high ISO stopping the lens down. For some reason the storks don't look as sharp as everything else in the picture. Maybe that's some of what you meant when you compared the appearance here to how they look elsewhere, or maybe the whites are blown just a little. I could wish it wasn't tilted, too, but if you're shooting out a car window, it ain't too bad after all, is it?

The problem I have with the others is very subjective, just my opinion, and not necessarily The Truth, because who am I to say what's right and proper? But to me they are not tight enough to be pictures of the birds, yet too tight to be pictures of the settings, kind of in between, but not really either, if you know what I mean. I have to ignore a lot of the picture to see the bird, but I can't tell from the part I'm ignoring where the bird actually is in the world.

But from your comment in another thread, that you're not supposed to leave your vehicle, I'd say this is pretty good for shooting out the window! I also have to say that your shots worked out a lot better than the ones I made when I was trying one of those lenses. Your experience with the lens is certainly more positive than mine was.

[LPLIV]

Hi Woe.. thanks so much for the input, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can...
Believe it or not the sunset was really that colorful that night but when I got home the best of the silouette pics didn't pic up the colors of the clouds as accurately as my eye saw them... Yes I did add a little color so that the clouds looked more like they actually did but the sun was somewhat unfiltered in the bottom of the pic so it was yellow... I think that the yellow may have shown thru a little more.. BTW this is the winter resting place for snow geese and at that time about 3/4 of them had gone off to a field for the night.
The storks are definitely washed... Shooting white in full sun for detail is an art I need to learn, and the only other thing I can say to the tilt is oops... I should have used the PP to straighten it out... Thanks for pointing that out to me...
Thanks for the input on my composition on the others, you are absolutely right. The small bird was a real shock, it came really close to me almost unafraid. It actually was in a group of the very first pics taken with the Tamaron.. I was so excited that I didn't even think of framing it, the cheeky little bugger was posing for me....
The two birds in the mirror like water could probably be cropped to frame them better... They were pacing back and forth sifting out bugs from the water and mud... The whole group of birds were about 35 yards or more away from me.. I got to use the tripod on that one, they pretty much ignored me...
The heron was kind of a shocker too, it was about 35 yards away and oblivious to me as well, not sure how to frame it in the tule weeds... I had some shots with another one on a different day that was about 15' away and it just looked at me. I tried several times to a reaction out of it and some kind of movement but it barely acknowledged me.. I am wondering if this is the nature of the species...

Thanks again...

Phil

[wfooshee]

The heron was kind of a shocker too, it was about 35 yards away and oblivious to me as well, not sure how to frame it in the tule weeds... I had some shots with another one on a different day that was about 15' away and it just looked at me. I tried several times to a reaction out of it and some kind of movement but it barely acknowledged me.. I am wondering if this is the nature of the species...

It may be. I've walked right up to great blue herons in the park here, within 10 feet or so. They watch, but pretty much ignore me:

[LPLIV]

Woe:
Being that close to a wild heron must be an incredible experience, it must be used to humans. Our birds at the refuge won't let you get with in 30 yards of them...

Here are a couple more shots from the refuge, all except for the last one were shot with the old nikon 70-300..
This is the heron that seemed to have very little fear of me even when I made a move to get much closer.. I think that I was between 10-15 feet.


Three snow geese landing about 35 yards in front of me.. too much noise, wish I had vr and remembered to use the 300mm capablility of the lens... It was a really hazy day.. What's really cool about the geese is that when there is a large group of them, they sound like a bee hive buzzing and it is really loud. You can be 200-300 yards away and still hear them when the flock is big enough. The first couple of days I visited in Feb, I swear that there were 7-8,000 birds in the water...


This is one of my favorite ducks... looks like a mallard with a spoon bill.. very skittish, usually serves as a warning to the other fowl which starts the mass flight to escape my vicious camera....


This pic was taken after another photographer spooked this group, I had stealthily moved closer to this group of ducks with out them panicing only to have a clown rush them to take a pic...


This is one of my least favorite birds, the seagull feasting on one of the beautiful spoon bill mallard. The gulls would fly over the geese and other ducks waiting for one to not pay attention to it and then dive on it... One unluck mallard was probably sleeping when it got hit.. The feast is taking place about 75-80 yards out from where I was set up to shoot.. I was in Carmel, CA late Feb and saw gulls persuing coots and mallards... It looked like a shooting gallery where the duck would dive and come up a few feet away frustrating the gulls...


Thanks again for your input..

Phil

[wfooshee]

You talk about that next to last pic like it was a missed opportunity, but I like it best of the one's you've posted, possibly except the sunset.It has the setting, and it has a sense of movement, and of community.

[LPLIV]

Thanks Woe.. I like the pic too but just dissapointed in the gull's killing of such a beautiful bird that is much harder to catch closer shots of... Gulls don't fear humans and for the most part are easier targets to shoot... I am still a little puzzled abouty why the pics aren't as clear.. I am going to start shrinking the pics to what is recommended...

Thanks again for your input...

Phil

[wfooshee]

Next to last, not last. The flight flurry.

Anyone else gonna play here? Nothing to say?

[paulnj]

very nice job with that lens!