BEST DAY EVER!

[AstroEd]

My First close up(ish) Osprey. Over 500 images, Normally I have 8-30 keepers. I have at least 150 keepers. This Osprey, My first American Coots (Not good image but my first. My first Cormorants though just out of range of crisp images. BUT THIS OSPREY made my day, 7 hours of Lightroom and I am still excited.

I was caught by surprise and as I am new to BIF the water impact shots were blurry. But so far these are my most succesful BIF Nikon D500, Sigma 150-600mm @ 500mm

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The little duck being all calm is perfect. Almost like it knows it is not lunch today.

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[jeffnles1]

well done

 

[Ralph]

My First close up(ish) Osprey. Over 500 images, Normally I have 8-30 keepers. I have at least 150 keepers. This Osprey, My first American Coots (Not good image but my first. My first Cormorants though just out of range of crisp images. BUT THIS OSPREY made my day, 7 hours of Lightroom and I am still excited.

I was caught by surprise and as I am new to BIF the water impact shots were blurry. But so far these are my most succesful BIF Nikon D500, Sigma 150-600mm @ 500mm
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The little duck being all calm is perfect. Almost like it knows it is not lunch today.
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Nice Job Ed. I really like those last two.

 

[sh1209]

Great shots!

 

[AstroEd]

Thanks, They are not as good as you pros can do, but they are my personal best so far in the 45 times I have used the Nikon D500 since getting it 1.5 years ago.

 

[bleirer]

Very nice. I like the close in action shots.

 

[Bill M]

Great job. Sounds like your having a great time with these...and that's what it is about. Enjoy.

 

[AstroEd]

Very nice. I like the close in action shots.

I am upset that everything I shot from the dive to hitting the water and first popping up was all blurry. I just could not keep tracking it was so fast. ODDLY enough I do not remember hearing it hit the water I was so focused on getting the shots.

 

[AstroEd]

Great job. Sounds like your having a great time with these...and that's what it is about. Enjoy.

I hope it is a MANY times in a life time experience. I hope to get sharper images someday but these are my best to date of a bird in flight.

 

[DRwyoming]

I am upset that everything I shot from the dive to hitting the water and first popping up was all blurry. I just could not keep tracking it was so fast. ODDLY enough I do not remember hearing it hit the water I was so focused on getting the shots.

Stick with it, your shots are good and this stuff takes practice. I'd also take a look at the metadata for your shots to look at things like shutter speeds used as that may provide clues on your keeper rate.

But these are very nice, you're getting closer to your subjects and beginning to track fast action. Keep practicing and paying attention to patterns like areas of the lake they like to feed or flight paths you see them taking back to their nests or other clues that can help you get in better positions and anticipate action better. That's all part of the learning curve and it does get a bit easier (though never totally easy) with practice.

Good job!

 

[Harry.G]

I`d echo the thoughts of DRwyoming .... Keep practising and honing your skills ,, you will eventually figure out spots that will get you closer and closer to your subject without to much disturbance and all of a sudden you will start to Nail those pin sharp action shots ..

When I first tried I was sure that 1/1000 Shutter Speed was good and 1/1600 was super fast . How wrong was I .... With decent light and Shutter Speeds of 1/2000 and even way faster you`ll be pleasantly surprised at what can be captured ...

the last 2 are great especially the final shot its got a great wing position and even has a fish in its Talons , it takes some going to get a shot like that so Well done


Harry.G

 

[ssheipel]

Nice grabs!

 

[KurtT]

Love it! I haven't been in that right place right time yet, but that's what keeps us going out. Great job!

 

[AstroEd]

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

"Best Day Ever!"....no kidding! Super shots.

 

[Warren D]

I am upset that everything I shot from the dive to hitting the water and first popping up was all blurry. I just could not keep tracking it was so fast. ODDLY enough I do not remember hearing it hit the water I was so focused on getting the shots.

What shutter speed? You need to be really fast with a diving osprey. There is another factor with diving osprey, they pick up speed in the last 20 feet or so of the dive as they tuck/re-position their wings for impact. You think you have a good pan rate, following them down, the osprey is dead-center in the viewfinder only to find when you look at the pics (fast FPS assumed) that at a certain point, you start seeing the osprey get lower and lower in the frame until they are just out of the frame when they hit and as you pan by the hit location, you've got the splash. You then need to slow the vertical pan to a stop and try to re-acquire the bird before he/she leaves the water. You have about 1/2 sec to do that as they grab and run. Now some will sit in the water for a bit getting the fish positioned correctly but most are out of the water fast, faster if they miss. Unlike ducks, osprey lack the oils in the their feathers and will get water-logged if in the water for more than a few minutes. You also had a young bird, one of this years hatchlings so they can be a little more erratic. That brings up another fun observation, they will often make a course correction to their dive at the last instant, just another way they can disappear from your viewfinder.
Practice is the partial answer, but it's hard to compensate for their last second changes.

 

[AstroEd]

Nice Job Ed. I really like those last two.

I am so tempted to get the image with the wings straight up printed even thought it is not the sharpest image. But I never had one printed and framed before so no clue if it is worth the cost or if I should, or wait for my first “Exceptional Image” None of my images are good enough to be printed in a magazine like some of you pros. But dang I like these because they are my first decent ones.

 

[AstroEd]

Forgive quality it was saved from my facebook page but is this a better crop than the tall narrow one in my OP?

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vs original crop

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[AstroEd]

I am kinda torn I like seeing the water drops in the original crop.

 

[NorthernFocus]

Well done. Starting to get things dialed in it seems.

 

[KurtT]

I am kinda torn I like seeing the water drops in the original crop.

I do like seeing the water drops and I personally like tight crops in most cases, if the image quality can handle it. No science or editing knowledge... just what I like. Regardless I like the original post best.

 

[AstroEd]

I am so tempted to get the image with the wings straight up printed even thought it is not the sharpest image. But I never had one printed and framed before so no clue if it is worth the cost or if I should, or wait for my first “Exceptional Image” None of my images are good enough to be printed in a magazine like some of you pros. But dang I like these because they are my first decent ones.

IF I wanted to get this printed and framed what file format and how large a file is needed for best detail? These are all .jpg. But I have the original.NEF file would .TIF be better if I can crop it the same?

 

[Ken Miracle]

I am upset that everything I shot from the dive to hitting the water and first popping up was all blurry. I just could not keep tracking it was so fast. ODDLY enough I do not remember hearing it hit the water I was so focused on getting the shots.

What shutter speed? You need to be really fast with a diving osprey. There is another factor with diving osprey, they pick up speed in the last 20 feet or so of the dive as they tuck/re-position their wings for impact. You think you have a good pan rate, following them down, the osprey is dead-center in the viewfinder only to find when you look at the pics (fast FPS assumed) that at a certain point, you start seeing the osprey get lower and lower in the frame until they are just out of the frame when they hit and as you pan by the hit location, you've got the splash. You then need to slow the vertical pan to a stop and try to re-acquire the bird before he/she leaves the water. You have about 1/2 sec to do that as they grab and run. Now some will sit in the water for a bit getting the fish positioned correctly but most are out of the water fast, faster if they miss. Unlike ducks, osprey lack the oils in the their feathers and will get water-logged if in the water for more than a few minutes. You also had a young bird, one of this years hatchlings so they can be a little more erratic. That brings up another fun observation, they will often make a course correction to their dive at the last instant, just another way they can disappear from your viewfinder.
Practice is the partial answer, but it's hard to compensate for their last second changes.

Yup ... what Warren said !! .... my most important settings for BIF ... fast shutter speed, faster shutter speed, even faster shutter speed ... AF C ... Continuous High Speed shooting ... group AF many times.

 

[AstroEd]

Yup ... what Warren said !! .... my most important settings for BIF ... fast shutter speed, faster shutter speed, even faster shutter speed ... AF C ... Continuous High Speed shooting ... group AF many times.

For those images camera settings looking through the eyepiece were for group but back focus, but when I hit back focus it went to single focus Made it very hard to keep focus). Tonight I changed it to back focus group so I hope tomorrow I will see improvement.

 

[IainD]

Thanks, They are not as good as you pros can do, but they are my personal best so far in the 45 times I have used the Nikon D500 since getting it 1.5 years ago.

The pros get a lot of practice and you probably have other things you need to do rather than sit in a hide for several days waiting for the perfect shot! Don’t beat yourself up. They are really good shots! Not just good shots “for an amateur!”