First time trying my hands at bird photography, please feel free to be harsh

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avd1sc0v3r

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Good on ya for taking the plunge.

Good subjects all around. Of the three the flight shot stands out.

The issues with the other two are things we've all dealt with way too many times but it's part of the game. The first shot is tough first as the Kiskadee is just far away and secondly the blank sky behind the bird and tree. Though the Bee or Fly or whatever that is is really cool :) We all have taken shots like that and then spend time figuring out how to get closer and figuring out how to get better shooting angles that give us better backgrounds. It seems really tough to get close enough and get good angles and good backgrounds at the beginning but with effort things get better.

Similar story on the Parrot shot (I assume that's a Parrot), you got a lot closer which helps a ton and the bird and the colors are great. But the shooting angle gave you all that blank sky through the leaves of the tree and that doesn't help the image at all as bright spots like that in the background tend to draw the viewer's eyes away from that beautiful bird.

Hope that didn't come off as harsh as my early bird shots weren't nearly as good as what you just posted and I still sometimes can't help myself and release the shutter for great subjects but in situations that don't work well. Do what you can get closer optically or physically and do what you can to improve shooting angles to avoid blank skies in the background when you can.

Welcome to the forums,

-Dave
 
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Hi Dave, absolutely not too harsh at all, very very helpful constructive criticism! I never honestly thought about the background.. I am so happy I posted here, it’s such a valid point, I am so busy looking at the subject that I didn’t give any thought to the composition. Or additional thought other than the general framing, exposure. Next time I have to learn to give some pause and think about the background too and not just subject, to be fair I was so thrilled and adrenaline kicked in just having spotted the birds Lol. The parrot, you’re close, it’s a macaw.. very common where I am in Brazil. Usually they are common near beaches, which is where I found this one. They get very used to people thus I was able to get really close.
 
That first one tells a nice story. You get the sense of where the bird is and what it might be doing in a moment. The trees in the background echoing the shape of the foreground tree is nice. A little cropping, cleaning up the errant twigs around the edges of the frame, and removing the twig in front of and above the bird would help tell the story by removing distractions.


The third one on my monitor something is out of bounds on the color. Maybe white balance or maybe you cranked a slider to strongly, contrast Maybe?


The second one is cool, can you selectively pull up those dark areas on the underside? Next time a little positive exposure comp (background brighter: brighten).

Plus, it's supposed to be fun. Was it fun?
 
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Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. So I never fully understood exposure compensation and thus never tried it, I still have so much to learn, I am just trying to get a good grasp of the Nikon af system from Steve’s book currently. But I absolutely will look into that next as soon as I am done with the book. I took up bird and wildlife photography because I live in Brazil now, it’s a beautiful country surrounded by such lush and diverse eco systems, yet I never venture out into the woods and forests and really look around. It’s been my way of getting outdoors, and learning about my surroundings, really looking at animals and plants. It’s been oddly therapeutic really, starting to see why so many people wake up early and just go into the woods for hours, paying attention to every rustle and bird call. I really am enjoying it, and hey if I get some good shots along the way, I mean it’s just even more gratifying.
 
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avd1sc0v3r said:
I live in Brazil now,
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I lived in Rio for three years, arriving in early November 1969 and leaving in early December of 1972. I loved it there. I had the run of the Embassy dark room provided I used expired chemicals, paper and black and white film. Too bad I did not learn more and pay for some good color film while I was there...

May I ask where you are living in Brasil and from where did you come?
 
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Wink Jones said:
I lived in Rio for three years, arriving in early November 1969 and leaving in early December of 1972. I loved it there. I had the run of the Embassy dark room provided I used expired chemicals, paper and black and white film. Too bad I did not learn more and pay for some good color film while I was there...

May I ask where you are living in Brasil and from where did you come?
Click to expand...
oh how nice to hear you spent some time in Rio, I wonder how different it was back then. I moved to Rio from Richmond, Virginia, I am Indian by ethnicity but moved to the USA when I was 17. I met my wife who is Brazilian in college and thus why I moved here, she is an only child and her entire family is here, and since we didn't have any kids it seemed like a swell idea and easy enough move. I did a small stint in wedding photography back in 2012, got a few gigs but then got a corporate job and chased the money. In Brazil being stuck during the pandemic, I took up photography again and realized how much I missed it. Enjoy nature and wildlife more now rather than shooting people, or female subjects in front of cool neon signs to get those "instagram" shots. Wildlife photography almost takes me back to a simpler love for just taking pictures.
 
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avd1sc0v3r said:
I am Indian by ethnicity but moved to the USA when I was 17.
Click to expand...

One of my best Indian friends lives in Ireland. He moved there when he was 4 months old. I had been doing business with him for a few months, always over email and one day he called me on Skype with his thick Irish accent. I was shocked and told him he did not sound at all Indian to me. We had a good chuckle and it was then he told me about moving to Ireland with his father at 4 months of age.

My wife and I have been back to Brasil twice now, and I want to return again some day to visit the places I learned to love when I was there. especially to take photos I could never have taken with my old film camera and lack of knowledge.
 
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