Today's lake shots

[Grumpy John]

The air quality in Melbourne has finally improved enough to venture out with the camera without having to deal with the horrible glare from the smoke haze.

I think that I have correctly identified these birds, please let me know if i got any wrong.

#1 Eurasian Coot.


#2 Australasian Swamphen


#3 I don't know what this little guy is, so an I.D. would be greatly appreciated


#4


#5 White Faced Heron.

[avkomp]

coot is a really nice image. sharp and nice light.
2nd image looks to be focussed in front of the swamphen to me.
3 and 4 look to be golden headed cistacola.
the heron iss a nice image too, probably let down a bit by the busy foreground. still works as a habitat shot though.

some nice work in here though

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for the Feedback Stephen, your comments are greatly respected by all. It's quite possible that the camera focused on the foliage rather that the bird, I'll check the other images and see if I can't find a sharper one. I agree with your comment re the busy foreground in the Heron shot, but that's where he(?) lives so it doesn't bother me.
Thanks for the I.D. on 3 & 4, I'll check my bird app nor that I have a reference to go by.

[Grumpy John]

A couple more images from today

#6 I'm not a big fan of square images, but I think this works.


#7 A lone pelican.


#8 The three young Black Swans born last year. Just starting to get their adult colours.

[avkomp]

Thanks for the Feedback Stephen, your comments are greatly respected by all. It's quite possible that the camera focused on the foliage rather that the bird

looks like it to me also. this is why I use a single active af point (or sometimes one point and the surrounding 9 if it moves a bit. d9 in nikon speak)
lots of focus points sounds like a good idea, but you can often get runoff onto something you dont want. so a single af point active and on the eye of the bird, or in same plane as the bird. then the camera focuses on the what I want, rather than what the camera thinks I want.

[Isac]

Nice collection of ducks and birds John. Nice PP too. My faves: #1, a lovely POV, great detail and framed well - #7, again well framed - ROT well used and good colours. I won't be taking the camera to the lake for a while, last shots today - I'll post later.

[Grumpy John]

Nice collection of ducks and birds John. Nice PP too. My faves: #1, a lovely POV, great detail and framed well - #7, again well framed - ROT well used and good colours. I won't be taking the camera to the lake for a while, last shots today - I'll post later.

Thanks for the kind words Isac. Still plenty of water in the lake, just not much variety. I'm very happy with the way my bird photography is progressing, these are my best images of a Coot and Swamphen and the shots of the Golden Headed Cisticola are a real bonus. My PS skills are also coming along in leaps and bounds thanks to your help.

Some pre-edited images.

#1 Still a work in progress.


#2


#3

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day GJ

They all look beaut to me ~ Q: do you shoot from a bird hide? or just sitting quietly?

Phil

[Grumpy John]

No bird hide at this lake Phil, just wander round aimlessly looking for birds to photograph.