Home › Forums › Photo Critique › *Canadian* goose
- This topic has 4 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 10 months ago by James Staddon.
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May 26, 2014 at 6:19 pm #6042Frazer FamilyParticipant
I got out during the golden hour one morning to see if I couldn’t get some daffodils in the golden light. While waiting for the sun to peek through the clouds for just a second so I could snap the shutter, I heard a pair of geese approaching. I didn’t get any good flower pictures that morning, but thanks to a few lessons on flexibility I learned during Capture Quebec :), I did get this photo of a goose passing directly overhead. If you had been in my situation, what would you have done to make this picture better?
Photo specs :
Camera : Sigma SD14
Lens : 70-300mm, f/4-5.6
ISO : 200
Aperature : f/4.5
Focal length : 133mm
Shutter speed : 1/1600secMay 26, 2014 at 7:58 pm #6051Nathanael & Samantha FrazerModeratorCareful with those feathers- they look sharp enough to get cut on. Really nice shot! Is this cropped at all? bif shots are hard to get compositionally, but maybe if this is cropped put the bird a tad more on the right. Or, even better, flip this around completely in post processing, so the bird is flying to the right, and put the bird on the left. Often movement looks more natural when travelling left to right, or so I’m told. 😛 (our eyes automatically travel that way, supposedly) Might be worth a try just to see what effect it gives. Your colours are excellent; overall a really sharp shot imho!
May 27, 2014 at 10:16 am #6063HeldInHisArmsParticipantMay 27, 2014 at 3:00 pm #6067Ezra MorleyModeratorGood job! I know from experience that photographing flying birds is anything but easy!
As ‘NASA’ said, the composition would probably be improved if you would give it some space to “fly into”. I often have to resort to post-processing to fix the composition for a quick shot like that.
Here’s a bird shot I took with a Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 lens and Canon Rebel T3.
May 31, 2014 at 9:13 pm #6144James StaddonKeymaster“Nasa” and “buddingphotographer” mentioned the concept of line of sight. It’s so easy to place birds flying overhead in the center of the image. This may be necessary while actually shooting the picture to get that proper focus using the center focus point, but should be taken care of in post processing.
I’m glad there’s more than just the bird against an empty blue sky. Using clouds as a composition element is something to keep in mind. Again, more so in the image-choosing process than while actually shooting the picture, especially if you shot in bursts. See point #6 in this excellent article: 10 Creative Nature Photographs and How They Were Taken. Thought the Canadian subject was appropriate.
And by the way, when you get the opportunity to get a different angle on a flying bird, take advantage of that too. As you can imagine, there are far less shots taken from above than from below which you can add to a portfolio to add variety.
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