Critique SEO @ 12800 ISO

FourRingCircus

FourRingCircus

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John
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I don't normally shoot this sort of image, but given the very last rays of a setting sun were illuminating the subject, I thought I'd give it a bash. Taken at 1000mm F8 last night (about 9.30pm) with a ludicrously high ISO. No processing been done other than a slight crop to 16:9. Above and below the border is just more of the same dark heather moorland.

Needless to say, cropping to a forensic study of the bird is pointless, but I stopped short of deleting the pic when I realised that this shot can be about more than just the bird itself. I'm not known for being 'arty', so keen to hear what others think of this as a picture rather than as a bird shot.

11143299_992258494127226_6684782556477937251_o.jpg
 
Lovely to see but TBH, for me, it's a record shot as it is mostly (understandably) soft ... if it was mine I would be looking at it and reflecting on my misfortune at not being able to get closer :)
 
Interesting, but I'm wondering the purpose of f8. The back & foreground is uninteresting, maybe wide open would have saved some ISO for you? Too late now, I know. :)
 
Orange Elephant said:
I'm wondering the purpose of f8.
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At 1000mm, it's not possible to go lower than F8. ;)

@gramps - I'm always reflecting on my misfortune....... :p

I was going to delete it in camera, but my other half said she liked it 'as a picture'. I tested it on Facebook and it got many more 'likes' than I expected, and typically from people who don't normally go for my close-up stuff. My mantra is 'would I hang it on the wall?' With this one, I just haven't decided. Thanks for the input though.
 
Thanks Gavin. Facebook gets most of the stuff I like. TP gets a bit more selective with some of the stuff I like, but I really want to receive tough critique here to help me get better. When this place works well, it's the best place to get honest helpful remarks. My perceived improvements over the past few years has come mainly from (sometimes) harsh words on here. By contrast, Bird Guides gets VERY few uploads and only if I think they are worthy of being up there with the best. Unfortunately, I've only uploaded about a dozen shots to BG in three years, with two of them being awarded as 'notable'. POTW one day..... ;)
 
I like it as a bird-in-its-environment image plus it is a nice picture at the end of the day (literally !).

I would be chuffed with this. Cannot be any harsher than this !
 
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Where was it taken John?
 
As an image I like it. I would probably crop it more top and bottom - but then I'm a sucker for panoramic images.

There is such an obsession with tightly cropped bird headshots with no landscape context! That's on here and almost everywhere else in the bird photography world.

It's not to say that those images are not fantastic portraits of the birds themselves, because they often are. But there is room for images like this, which are nicely composed, and beautifully lit.

Technically it may have failings (I can't really tell) but well done for trying something different and not deleting it! Well done to the OH as well! You're lucky that s/he takes an interest!
 
More bird less rock for me ,the light is intresting and the pose of the bird reflects this ,but as said more bird and less rock and it could have worked ,me personaly i take no notice of facebook likes and to some extent flickr ,i take notice of freinds who comment but thats about all.
 
BRASH said:
Where was it taken John?
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Eighteen hundred feet up near the top of a hill in Glen Esk.:D

jerry12953 said:
But there is room for images like this, which are nicely composed, and beautifully lit.
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Thanks Jerry. As yet another one of those who tries to get ever closer, I have to admit that I'm beginning to see the other side now. When people have to ask 'is that wild or captive', perhaps that says more about the style of photograph than may first appear. I might just print this one out now and see how it looks in the flesh. At such a high ISO, it may not warranty praise on paper, but we'll see.....

den said:
more bird and less rock and it could have worked
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Normally, I'd have said the same thing Den. My usual guage is 'would I put this on my wall?'. However, there is something about the wider isolation here and the fact that this guy had a vantage point covering hundreds of square miles (literally). He was just waiting for the last rays of sun to go and then got up off the rock to start hunting.
 
This shot reminds me of a shot I took a few years ago - I thought, (hoping), that it was a Forrest Buzzard, (Buteo trizonatus) ...... but I am still not sure and maybe I was wrong

obviously I took it from some distance ...... I keep thinking about "binning" it - but there is something in it that appeals to me ........ must be the occasion when I took it

I hope that you do not mind me posting it?

Forrest_B.jpg
 
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Don't mind at all Bill and I see what you mean. Just a shame about the foreground leaves, but this gives it a more covert feel!
 
Romany said:
Go with your gut instinct..delete it
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If the owl can be Identified and you are interested in birds, not just bird photography and you have no other shot ...... is it not worth keeping as a "record shot"

In my posting, I'm keeping it as there is just a chance that it is a Forrest and not a Steppe Buzzard
 
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