Overwatch

What technical feedback would you like if any?

All comments welcome

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

All comments welcome

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

Birds are rarely sitting still, unless they’re tending a nest. like this momma with her two chicks. But even with that, the mom was turning away from the camera, and burying her head under her wing, and so forth. And the babies…you never know when they’re going to pop up! Also, the adult bird up top was going and coming. So…it’s a challenge to get everybody facing the camera, and it’s tough to manage a focus, w/ birds on different planes and moving all the time. So I just manually pre-focused on the top of the mangrove island, at f/8 and 1/1500 second, ISO 1600…and waited. I put a cable release on, and rapid continuous fire, and I just set my eyes on the little area on top of the island, and decided if anything entered the frame in that area, I would fire off continuous shots until they left the frame. Ended up with what looked like a family, with Pop up top watching over the clan.

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2 Likes

I think this is awesome. Great idea, great execution, and the processing is very nice. That side/back-lighting really adds a lot. My only small nit is that I wish the bird on top had turned its head slightly more towards you. But that’s a small point in what I think is a special photo.

Looks great Photo tells a nice story. I assume you set exposure for sun lite whites because nothing looks over done. The photo covers quite a bit of area and I wonder what lens you were using. A 500/600mm might have given dof but I am not sure if they would have covered the area.
Really good thinking on your part. And a good tip!

Hi Doug, I really like this image - tells such a great story. The lighting on the top bird is wonderful and draws your eye to what seems to be him protecting the other birds below. Great that we can see the eyes of all the birds. Well done.

Wow, this is really great. The poses are good, the light in the wings of the upper egret, the balance of exposure and the overall story and feeling of the photo are really good.
I have no criticisms at all. Beautiful…

This is fabulous! Your patience really paid off. The birds are wonderfully rendered and you’ve shown enough of their environment to tell a great story.

What is not to love about this shot. Great idea with the manual focus and just wait to rapid fire when something happened, and it did. Looks like everyone’s eye is visible. Nicely done.