Critique Cirl Bunting

BillN_33

BillN_33

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Bill
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We usual get a pair nesting in the garden every year. They (the young) are noisy birds and can nest low down, maybe that's why they have a high mortality rate. Anyway these images were taken in 2012 with the Nikon 300mm f4 Nikon f4 and ISO 200 at around 1/160 sec - on a tripod….. D300

Would appreciate your comments - presumably to get better images I need to set up a hide, (easy to do) and get a lot closer

I realise that the last image is a bit busy

just sharpened then a little in Elements 10 today from what I originally had

Full size, then cropped images

Cirl_full.jpg


Cirl_1.jpg


Cirl_2.jpg


Cirl_3.jpg
 
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They look fine to me Bill don't know how big a crop the last three are.

If I had to pick one the it would be 2 as the position of the bird is better and the image is more balanced

Gaz
 
Gaz J said:
They look fine to me Bill don't know how big a crop the last three are.

If I had to pick one the it would be 2 as the position of the bird is better and the image is more balanced

Gaz
Click to expand...

Thanks Gaz

The last three are all crops from the size of the first - all taken at the same time as each other
 
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Well as they are in your garden setting up a hide should get you some really good shots.
 
Gaz J said:
Well as they are in your garden setting up a hide should get you some really good shots.
Click to expand...

We live in SW France so they are more common than the UK

just wondering how near I should get with the hide - 2 or 3 metres?
 
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BillN_33 said:
We live in SW France so they are more common than the UK

just wondering how near I should get with the hide - 2 or 3 metres?
Click to expand...

Just make sure that however far away you are from small birds with whatever lens length you are using, that you also factor in the larger birds, and being able to get them all in too if using a fixed focal lens....

I like your second and last images.
 
I would give the birds a bit of space around them to allow for a bit of cropping especially if you tend to use centre point AF.

I know recently that I have taken a few that are a bit tight in the frame and composition has suffered in PP accordingly. I console myself with the fact that I wasn't expecting the bird to turn up that close to me and just went for the pic rather than faff about taking the TC off.

You'll be able to leave the hide up and this will help the birds get used to it and they'll soon be going about their lives as if its always been there.
 
BillN_33 said:
just wondering how near I should get with the hide - 2 or 3 metres?
Click to expand...
I imagine there may be a risk of getting too close and causing the parents to abandon the nest/brood if you're not careful. If you are determined to use a hide then setting it up further away than you intend and gradually moving it closer every couple of days is probably the way to do it. But even then you do not want to be getting too close. What the definition of "too close" actually is I'm not sure, but definitelty err on the side of caution, so 3m maybe.
 
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