My 1st BIF's.

Wow, BIFs are difficult. I thought hockey and dance were tough because of fast action and low light. My hat is off to you! I happened upon a solitary Canadian Goose this morning and tried to shoot it. I spooked it and barely had time to fire off some shots. The sky was very grey so I've done some PP for that. I ran the images through Neat Image and did an unsharpen mask in CS 4. I believe some of the camera settings were stripped in CS4. 1DMKIV, AV, 70-200 w/1.4 (focal length 270mm), f6.3, 1/1000, EC +1/3,ISO 200, WB-auto, spot metering, picturre style-standard. I'd appreciate any comments both pro or con.

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When taking a shot against the sky you have to dial in + compensation or your pictures will be under exposed. A little closer wouldn't hurt either... Also in your composition avoid to keep the bird spot in the middle, leave some space in front of the bird. Hope that can be to some help

Little bit underexposed, which would also give you more noise to deal with. A longer lens is helpful in bird shooting, but good first effort.

Thanks for the advice. The 70-200L works for some of the sports I've shot but I could tell I'm woefully lacking in reach for this type of shooting even with the 1.4X on it. Hope fully the next time I'm trying this I'll be better prepared.