[Freeman]

Trying out newly acquired Nikon D610 + 80-400G lens. Filter attached. Both shots cropped. Hand held from moving boat late morning.

[Barbara G.]

Nicely done! Thank you for sharing your photo experience with us!

[EdMak]

Great start. Ed.

[a2zidxdotcom]

Well done. From moving boat these are good.

Mike

[Phil J]

Hi Freeman,

Great photographs. I'll bet you're pleased!! All round good result, including you.

Regards.

Phil.

[Freeman]

Ok, thanks hugely for your compliments. I am going to risk exposing some of my efforts on birds in flight. Here goes....

[Freeman]

Hi all, As promised here are one or two of my attempts at birds in flight in the Danube Delta with my newly acquired kit. The first two are medium size birds that fly (comparatively) slowly (Squacco heron and egret). The last is for contrast, of a smaller bird which I think you will recognise, taken locally. The shot is not quite there to be honest but you don't get many chances like that and I was rather pleased with the result. The lens I'm using (Nikon 80-400G) has a facility for reducing horizontal and vertical vibration, so some respects the camera does the work. However, the challenge here is responding rapidly to a moving target in a setting with deep shadows and contrasting bright middle of the day light - anything other than manual settings doesn't work for birds in flight despite the excellence of the kit. In addition, as I mentioned, I quickly dispensed with the extender and the DX crop facility on the camera. The shots are all hand held, two from a boat, and cropped. See what you think.....

[EdMak]

Good start, worth trying a few at ISO 400, give yourself an edge. Ed.

[Wall-E]

Trying out newly acquired Nikon D610 + 80-400G lens. Filter attached. Both shots cropped. Hand held from moving boat late morning.

I think you over-sharpened the first one.

[EdMak]

How much did you sharpen it?

Bearing in mind, this is from a 129Kb file, (what is original size). I am sure you will get there.

Cheers. Ed.

[Freeman]

Hi guys, you are right. I sharpened it too much and there s a white line along the top of the bird. I'm not sure if that applies to the squacco heron snap, possibly not. I'm afraid my editing skills and even the more general processes on the computer like recording and moving photos around are far from sophisticated. However, I have found a couple of the originals of this series for you to see so it is clear what I have done. We can then tell better the quality of the kit being used in addition to my first attempts at using it.

[Jeffbridge]

Beautiful captures; excellent series!!

[EdMak]

Hi guys, you are right. I sharpened it too much and there s a white line along the top of the bird. I'm not sure if that applies to the squacco heron snap, possibly not. I'm afraid my editing skills and even the more general processes on the computer like recording and moving photos around are far from sophisticated. However, I have found a couple of the originals of this series for you to see so it is clear what I have done. We can then tell better the quality of the kit being used in addition to my first attempts at using it.


Is the 1st. Pic, the one I enlarged above? Ed.

[Freeman]

Ed, yes one of the two originals recently added is the one I edited and cropped to produce the first shot I uploaded, and therefore I think the one you enlarged. Your enlargement absolutely demonstrates the ability of the camera to cope with massive cropping and still provide a satisfactory result. (Unfortunately when you add the extender, I seem to find you can't crop so hard). Cheers Jeff

[Freeman]

Thank you Jeffbridge for your encouragement! Very much appreciated!!!

ED, your enlargement makes the picture staggeringly more impactful than my crop attempt. Did you do anything to it?

[EdMak]

Photoshop, Smart Object facility, get all the credit for it! Ed.

[Freeman]

Aha! An old pro at work, methinks!

[Freeman]

A minor correction and apology: the cuckoo picture was in fact taken on the Danube Delta - it's not one of my local cuckoo snaps as I suggested....