First Bird "shots" with the 70D and Sigma 70-200 2.8 APO OS - Any Pointers?

I don't usually shoot birds but I had the 70D and my new Sigma 70-200 2.8 APO OS with me as I drove by the park so I thought I'd give it a try.

These were all at 200mm, f4, and cropped quite a bit. I was using Spot metering and Auto Select 19 Point AF with the center point selected. AI Servo.

I was impressed with how well it was able to track the geese with as much as was in the background, even when they flew behind a tree!

Any pointers are appreciated. Thanks for looking!


Nothing special here, thought it turned out pretty sharp though.

A couple more...

Couldn't recover the shadows on these so I embraced them instead

1 & 4 are my favorites.

1: I love that the bird is flying through the frame. Love the sharpness of it.

4: Not sure if I am digging that the duck is so centered in the frame though. otherwise I really like this image. Love the detail in the duck.

Nice work overall

HeatherS wrote in post #17498286
1 & 4 are my favorites.

1: I love that the bird is flying through the frame. Love the sharpness of it.

4: Not sure if I am digging that the duck is so centered in the frame though. otherwise I really like this image. Love the detail in the duck.

Nice work overall

Thanks! I just got this lens. I am very happy with it so far!

I see what you mean with the framing on #4. I typically try to stick to the left or right 3rd. Looking back at the original, I think I ended up cropping it like this to keep the 2 in the background without showing the shore. Next time I will try to keep framing in mind while shooting. There were 50+ ducks at this park so I was a little overwhelmed! The Canadian geese were also being very territorial so I was kind of watching my back too! lol

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

The gull shot looks sharp, but a bit small in the frame, composed nicely. The mallards appear fairly sharp, but hard to tell. The composition of the mallards could be better and the 2 mallards in the background are distracting, and if possible I would have cropped out.

Talaska wrote in post #17503114
The gull shot looks sharp, but a bit small in the frame, composed nicely. The mallards appear fairly sharp, but hard to tell. The composition of the mallards could be better and the 2 mallards in the background are distracting, and if possible I would have cropped out.

Thanks for taking the time! so the biggest thing is composition. I agree!