Not a garden bird.

For a change, not a robin, starling, etc but a Great Crested Grebe,

[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j311/Tinywales/birdsandbutterflies/great_crested_grebe.jpg[/IMG]

and a courting pair

[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j311/Tinywales/birdsandbutterflies/courting_grebes.jpg[/IMG]

taken at Knutsford Moor yesterday.

Comments, criticism and any advice.

Thanks.

Howard

shame there not in focus,

Shame indeed

Make = PENTAX Corporation
Model = PENTAX K10D

[Camera]
Exposure Time = 1/25"
F Number = F16
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 200

Personally I would say your exposure time and aperture were far too slow which has caused a fair bit of shake.

Pity as it would have been a nice shot otherwise.

They were probably a long way away as well. There's some on Carr Mill Dam in St.Helens usually diving for fish around the middle of the dam.

Edit: Although looking at the first shot, it looks fairly close.

shim

Plus focal length = 300mm.

Howard they are lovely colours, but as pointed out not as sharp as you could achieve.

With a 300mm lens, if you are handholdingyou really should be using 1/500 without S/R, or 1/250-1/125 (as a minimum) with S/R to avoid camera shake. A monopod or tripod would help here.

You were using 200 ISO which is fine with a tripod, but handheld you should up that to 400 or 800 to give you a faster shutter speed.

You were using f16. This is not really neccesary for this kind of shot, if you used f8 you would have gained 2 stops of speed or 5.6 and gained 3.

With wildlife your camera can be as still as possible but the bird shakes its head at the moment you capture that perfect shot and your result is so-so. You really need to try and aim for the fastest shutter possible. This is one of the rare occasions I use Tv on the camera.

Thank you for all your comments and advice. It must be my eyes and possibly this monitor as I didn't think that they were out of focus, soft perhaps. However I asked for your C & C I accept it. I must go again to do better (sounds like my school report:!

they were about 5 or 6 ft away from the path, usually they are right in the middle of the mere.

Howard

If I could ever give anyone a piece of advice, never show your out of focus shots it hurts the eyes,

Howard,
5 or 6 ft away is very close. Are you sure you calculated the distance correctly? And what lens are you using? I see you shot at 300mm focal distance, I would assume that you ought to get a stunner of a shot.
Get the settings right and you will have a cracker of a shot.
My experience is, assuming you are using a zoom, to use it at a shorter focal length, this is in case they were really that close.
I might be wrong here in which case I do apologise and someone please correct me, my experience is still limited.

Amin

You a St Helens lad then shim:

It's quite possible I did underestimate, on recollection perhaps it was 10ft or so. No need to apologize Amin, I agree I lost a brilliant opportunity. My mind must have been on other things, like getting out of the cold wind

Howard

Is this better or worse?

[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j311/Tinywales/birdsandbutterflies/yet_another_grebe.jpg[/IMG]

The speed is wrong but I was actually leaning on the railings as I took these. That's my very weak excuse anyway

I'll stop boring you now and go and make a cup of tea.

Thanks one and all.

Howard

Better in my view Howard. But you really need to bump up that shutter speed. 1/80 is way way too slow for handheld even though you were leaning on railings. From what they have been telling me you got to get the ratio of the focal length, so if you are using 300mm you got to try to get to at least 1/300 shutter speed or closer to that if limitations force you. Sometimes you can't get that because of the limitations of the aperture settings but from what I see you had plenty of it still in store, you had f16, you could easily still open it up by decreasing the values and that will allow you to bump up the shutter speed. It will work proportionally, as you open up the aperture value you will be able to increase shutter speed. And then still the last trick you can put to play is bumping up your iso, but I think in your situation here you might not even need to.
I hope I am not bombarding you with stuff that you are already well aware and experienced of, in which case I do apologise.
Sometimes the enthusiasm takes the better of me


Amin