[Pat]

I know this is not a good photograph, you can see what beautiful birds (Eastern Rosella) they are and I am having great difficulty photographing them closeup to show off their colours. This was taken at full zoom standing about 2-3m from where they were feeding. I own a Canon PowerShot Pro1 which has a 3.2x combination with optical zoom, whatever that means I can buy a teleconverter which changes the focal length by a factor of 1.5x . My question is would this attachment allow me to take better closeups?



Feedback would be appreciated.

[Petographer]

They certainly are beautiful birds. I understand your concern for wanting to get closer but lets just make comment on what you have first. I see good balance with the two feeders positioned this way but that is about it. What you need to do is take a lot of shots from a lot of different angles. The reason I say this is because of the lighting. There are very dark shady area's and sunny blown area's. Try and get a more even exposure and use flash to fill the shaded area when necessary. Multiple photos would also have given you multiple choice's. You have a bird shaking. In my opinion it throws off the balance of the photo. Spend more time look at your photo op. Photographers must be patient. As far as your tele-converter goes, it definitely will get you closer to the action. I just do not know what the quality will be like as I'm unfamiliar with the product itself.

[Irma]

Your picture has very nice composition... the problem was the light... the sunlight kills the colors... I think you get true colors early in the morning, when you have light but not the sunlight direct to your subject or in those cloudy days, when the clouds work as a filter and you still have good light...

[shuttertalk]

I think you've done well with what you've got - it's nice to see so many birds in one shot and with this one in particular, there is a lot of subject interest. I like the composition, it's very balanced, although I would definitely agree regarding the harsh lighting.


I'm not sure if you tried, but perhaps if you try to get the birds used to your presence, you might be able to get in closer. Maybe sit there and read a book, and each day move the chair closer.

[wulinka]

Hey, you definitely captured a nice moment with that one bird shaking off the water!

Have you tried to get up to an elevated vantage point? that would help you get more of the birds in the picture, since half of their bodies won't be cut of by the bowls. And it might help with the light, because even though in bright light, you won't be shooting into the light.

The colors you get where they are not blown out are very nice and vibrant.

hope you got some help here, keep trying!

uli