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Weekly Competition #632 - Birds in flight Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 25/08/2019
Judge: drofmit

Any bird, so long as it is in flight...
I will be looking for pictures capturing the bird in a natural pose...
some birds are slow and graceful [like egrets], others are speedy missiles that are difficult to capture [eg: kingfishers and stooping peregrines]
Usual rules... Pentax/Ricoh cameras.... picture can be shot for the competition or, as it is a weekly, trawled from the archives.
Good luck...
Competition Entries
drofmit
Posted 26/08/2019 - 00:20 Link
Thanks for all the Entries... it is going to be a toughie!
I will pick a winner tomorrow... and finish the write up later.
Never be afraid to talk about your techniques...
"Give a thousand photographers...
the same camera, lens and scene...
and you'll always get a thousand different takes!!"
Anon.
drofmit
Posted 26/08/2019 - 14:17 Link
We have a winner... well done John Riley... comments and full results up later...
Edited by drofmit: 26/08/2019 - 14:17
drofmit
Posted 26/08/2019 - 21:38 Link
As I said... this one has been a toughie...
fifteen very nice pictures.... it took me a long time to iron out a winner
So here are my thoughts and observations...

Coming in to land by Nigelk

The bird in flight is pin sharp...
and enough movement elsewhere to show it was...
very well panned!
Only niggle... the head of the lowest puffin...
it distracts from the two complete birds...
keeps pulling my eye downward


Take off time by vic cross

Yes... birds... plural... not just in the foreground...
but all along the opposite bank.
Enough movement, but nicely sharp.


Mute Swan by coker

A classic "swan shot"....
just taken to the air and a trail of water droplets to finish the look...
wings caught just at the perfect point of the downstroke...
and the bird pin sharp nose to final water drop!


Mallards by Perspicador

This is full of movement... the wings are in different positions... as are the feathers.
These birds are also on a lovely, diagonal, rising flightpath.

My only criticism are the two birds on the lake itself... they are betweenies...
neither soft enough to be part of the background, nor sharp enough to be part of the subject...
otherwise, a very nice picture of the three ducks.

On a side note, my father once bought a picture of "Three mallards in flight"...
it was a terrible picture... all three birds were in the same pose, just different plumage and size...
and they looked "stuffed" and hung on wires in slightly different poses.
This picture, although the three birds are "going away" show what the artist should have painted!


Canada Goose in Flight by EricD1306

Raw power, full of movement, lovely panned shot...
Only distraction is the bit of vegetation sneaking in at bottom left....
and in a tricky area to clone out!!


Another Heavy Landing... by Aitch53

The converse of the above Canada Goose... but not as well panned, sadly...
the only real difference being the 1/250th to 1/400th of the previous [and the camera...
but I doubt that would have created the movement]


Eagle Owl by retsoor

Wonderful shape, unfortunately a lack of focus on the subject....
sad, because everything else is so damned perfect...
wing shape and movement, the gaze of the owl fixed on the trainer's glove, the depiction of power....


Peruvian Condors by shadwellal

Wonderful shot of an iconic bird...
unfortunately, the feet and some of the rock have blown and lost detail...
an ND filter or stopping down would have been needed here.
You are already at the lowest ISO, anything faster would have frozen that nice little bit of wing movement...
f8 might have been a better choice... the vegetation bottom left wouldn't be a distraction if in focus...
that bit of rock might, but that can be cropped out.


Heron in Flight by johnriley

Wow! This is sharp from wingtip to wingtip...
yet, at f6.3, the vegetation in the water is nice and soft focus...
and shows you panned with the bird.
To make this perfect, it needs that tiny bit of veg at the bottom left cropping out...
and possibly the same amount at the top to balance and create a letterbox feel to a wide picture.
Love it...


Red Kite by Daronl

Lovely picture of a kite in typical pose... nothing at all wrong with it...
however, to appeal to me, it needs to have a "something"...
a bit more wing movement....
the gaze down at you, rather than at something out of shot...
anything like that to lift it away from a "record" shot.


Swan in silhouette by ken2390

The title says it... a classic swan shot...
but made different by having a white bird in silhouette against a beautiful sky...
very little to say, here... right pose, right position, right hole in the clouds....
Very nice...


The arc of birds by PaulBooth03

Corvids wending their way and forming a vague arc in the sky...
the picture is a bit too grey for me, but a bit of compression in levels would bring the sky out a tad.


Sorry, I'd fly if I could! ... by JAK

Like this... but John, they DO fly... underwater.
Very gracefully, very skillfully...
and with your experience, I could see you catching such a shot.
If this is a zoo, you are in the perfect place...
just wait for feeding time...
even better if they have a glass wall to their pool.


Fleeing Mallards by MikeInDevon

Naught wrong with cropping a picture... the duck are all sharp.
The horizon is disturbing me with this picture, tho'...
as you had to crop it, there would have been enough space to rotate the picture so that the hedge line was horizontal...
even if it wasn't in real life!
That would have allowed you to crop with the ducks ascending left to right...
there are no visible verticals to fight...
and the end result would be more pleasing to the eye.


Cormorant by Noelcmn

Last, but not least, a dark cormorant...
the lovely oily sheen on the feathers and the red eye are what appeal to me...
slight movement visible in the whole bird, though...
I am now shooting at 1/640 minimum with the 150>450 zoom at full stretch...
the usual rule of thumb no longer seems to work...
possibly because the sensors are getting better and better...
what was acceptable is now made more obvious.


So, the fuller results...

First place: Heron in Flight by johnriley
Coveted Second: Mute Swan by coker
Third slot: Swan in silhouette by ken2390
HCs... Coming in to land by Nigelk; Take off time by vic cross; Red Kite by Daronl

Very nice shots by everyone, thanks for entering...
and it is over to you John!
Never be afraid to talk about your techniques...
"Give a thousand photographers...
the same camera, lens and scene...
and you'll always get a thousand different takes!!"
Anon.
ken2390
Posted 27/08/2019 - 11:30 Link
Coo Thanks for my placing. What a nice surprise, especially seeing the other entries. Well done John for a cracking winner. Thanks again Drofmit.
coker
Posted 27/08/2019 - 12:13 Link
Congrats to John for 1st place, great shot among many good ones!

Thanks for the 2nd., Tim.

Roger.
The more I look, the more there is to see!
Noelcmn
Posted 27/08/2019 - 15:03 Link
Congrats John, agree a cracking image. And extended to coker and ken2390 and not forgetting the HM's nigelk, vic cross and daronl. Wonderful set of images, certainly put to rest the old perceptio that Pentax does not do BIF very well. Thanks to our busy host, Dromfit, (busy because he's judging also the monthly challenge) for the C&C's. Always appreciated.
Posted 28/08/2019 - 18:34 Link
Some very good photos and well done to all the places. Thanks dromfit for the judging and the comments. Agree with you the focus on mine was a little off the mark, enjoyed the competion.

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