First bird post

I'm almost embarrassed to post pics here with the awesome photos in some other threads, but here are a couple of my first bird pics since I got a dslr. The species is common, the light wasn't great, and I someday I hope to have more reach . These are my favorites out of a bunch of photos from my back yard. C&C is welcome. (in particular, would you crop the 2nd photo differently? darken all but the chickadee? delete it?). All shot with my T3i and 70-300mm f4.5-5.6. Thanks for looking! And thanks for all the other posts - I am learning a lot here.

Hmmm...I get red x's only, no pics.

porkphoto wrote in post #13764016
Hmmm...I get red x's only, no pics.

Sorry - fixed now.

Great Start -- keep em comin. Both shots are good -- the second one is "fun" with the chicadee peeking out of the bokah!

I like to see some of the environment that the bird is in. You're off to a good start, yes...keep posting.

Nice. And, better than my first bird shots.

Try to set up with the sun at your back so you can shorten your shutter speed and use a smaller f-stop to get more depth of field. Make sure you focus on the eye as it is critical to get it really sharp. And, as other have said,... keep shooting.

These are some nice images. You have a really nice composition on the first shot, but I would probably clone out that top branch since it is a bit distracting. On the second image a tighter crop would look more pleasing, but I know how hard it is to keep high IQ with heavy cropping in focal length limited situations. The first shot also looks like it might suffer from some blurriness due to using too low of a shutter speed. Small birds like this move VERY quickly, so I try to keep shutter speeds high or shoot in burst.

Keep working at it and find ways to get closer to the birds if possible. I use a photo blind or my kayak. Some people just shoot out of the window of their house and capture fantastic images.

Great start! My thoughts-maybe reomove that top branch on the 1st one as said; the 2nd is a bit busy for my tastes but it is from that sort of "free" thinking that great shots come from. IMHO

I also think you've got a very good beginning Chris!
Both images show great promise if not perfection in execution. In that you are not alone! I really like the attempt you made in the 2nd image. With a bit sharper focus on the bird itself it would have been awesome. Oh well, try again.....that's our motto here -
All the advice above is good. Birds are indeed quick little things and take some physical and mental prep on your part. Don't worry, let your pictures be your teacher as to whether you're doing what your supposed to be doing and keep at it.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement everyone. Shutter speed was 1/100 and 1/125 respectivley for the two shots, both at f7 and 300mm hand held. I did use IS, but there probably is a bit of motion blur. Given the limited options to set up in my back yard, I'll have to try different times of the day to get the light at my back. When I've tried using a tripod, I can't seem to aim it quickly enough to catch these fast guys. I'll keep trying and post my results. Thanks.

first of all........ good photos. Keep posting your stuff for sure.

for some help here is what I would do.
get that shutter speed faster. like 1/400th or faster
dont be afraid to use f7.1 or f8 they work great for helping hit focus and keeping the pics sharp.
forget the need for a tripod with faster shutter speeds than 1/320th, you can handhold easily at 300 with IS.
with the t3i you can run up to 1000 ISO pretty easily even 1600 can work with decent light.

What can i say , apart from wishing my first shots had been as good as these , great work .

Well, I guess they aren't exactly my first shots, but they were the first with a dslr and the best of about 100 I took that afternoon. I have been taking pictures with a high zoom P&S for a few months.

Good point about the ISO jhayesvw. These were at ISO100 and 400 would have put me into a nice shutter speed. I was shooting previously with a Panasonic Lumix super zoom model and it was pretty noisy even at 400, - I think it made me ISO shy (although I do miss the >600mm equivalent focal length).

Thanks all.
Chris