Fall Migrants

[Steve Hood]

These were taken this month during the fall migration around the GTA. 



Cape May Warbler



Bay-breasted Warbler



Red-eyed Vireo



Northern Waterthrush



Yellow-rumped Warbler



Common Yellowthroat



Blackpoll Warbler



Philadelphia Vireo

[Shortsighted]

 Wow! The three "S's" to a T. Superlative / Stellar / Stunning. The three "S's" used to be Shrimp,Sukiyaki and Soy sauce but that's just silly. Fine captures indeed, with excellent and compelling pose with cozy peripheral detail. Your 300mm f4 is a wonderful lens and you sure do know how to deploy it to great effect. Where was the Northern Waterthrush? Your Philadelphia vireo shot reminds me of one I took while eating a sandwich and it just flew into a bush to check me out. It had that same inquisitive mug. Your Cape May shows more silver-gray than pale yellow. I guess mine was less of a juvenile than yours. I'm not suggesting that I win. It's also great to hear from you after a long absence. I thought that you might have left the scene to play with the big kids. I wish that there was more dogwood and boxwood around here because I almost always fine something interesting within them. There is some up at Amos pond, which is only a few minutes away from here, so I may slip away to check it out.
 

[Steve Hood]

Thanks Shortsighted.  I am still around although I haven't posted as often online over the past year.   The Northern Waterthrush was taken at Bronte Bluffs Park in Oakville on Wednesday.  I went looking for the Connecticut Warbler that was reported there and only briefly saw it.  After tiring of looking for the Connecticut I went down a different path and ran into this Northern Waterthrush by chance.  This is the first photo that I have been able to get of one.

[Ally]

I really really love your photos. Really would love to learn how you process your photos. They are just so natural and real and nice! Not to mention sharp.

[Steve Hood]

Thank Ally.  I capture all of my images in RAW and use a RAW editor (Adobe Lightroom) to edit my photo.  When shooting in good light I generally don't need to make many changes and may just add a very small amount of sharpening and noise reduction along with some slight change to brightening/darkening of image.  When shooting in less than ideal light I try to use a slower shutter speed in order to keep the ISO low so that I don't have to apply a lot of Noise Reduction which reduces detail.  With a slower shutter speed you will need to take many photos so that you have an image where the bird wasn't moving.  The slower shutter speed will be dependent on your what you camera system is capable of.  I use Aperture Priority with a minimum shutter speed of 1/60s but most cameras should have a similar setting and as long as you have Lens stabilization you should be able to set a minimum shutter speed of at least 1/200s.


Another thing to keep in mind is how you crop the image.  Sometime I may rotate the image slightly so that it looks like the bird is looking off to the side.  I try to keep the beak parallel to the horizon as long as it looks natural.  The editor automatically shows the image in 1/3 quadrants although you can do this yourself visually.  I then try to crop the image and place the bird where it makes sense based on the other aspects of the surroundings that I also want to capture.  If the bird is looking off to once side then I try to line of the beak/eye with the line between the top/middle 1/3 quadrant.  This is usually a good starting point from where I can make slight adjustments to my liking.


Below are a couple example of how the original image was cropped.

[Ally]

Thank you so much for the detailed illustration. I'm taking some courses this year, classes starting tomorrow（That's why I haven't been able to supply photos lately）So, if you could, I do wish you guys can post more. Such a wonderful thing to read and see nice things you guys post. You and Dinu, Dave and Napper and Axeman, Charline all have different styles and SS is just the All-star player among the bunch. If I forget some names, that's because you didn't make enough appearances , post more! I love Gary's posts as well, used one pic as my screensaver.


And Thomas!! I am so grateful for his timely replies and corrections to my numerous mistakes.

Thank Ally.  I capture all of my images in RAW and use a RAW editor (Adobe Lightroom) to edit my photo.  When shooting in good light I generally don't need to make many changes and may just add a very small amount of sharpening and noise reduction along with some slight change to brightening/darkening of image.  When shooting in less than ideal light I try to use a slower shutter speed in order to keep the ISO low so that I don't have to apply a lot of Noise Reduction which reduces detail.  With a slower shutter speed you will need to take many photos so that you have an image where the bird wasn't moving.  The slower shutter speed will be dependent on your what you camera system is capable of.  I use Aperture Priority with a minimum shutter speed of 1/60s but most cameras should have a similar setting and as long as you have Lens stabilization you should be able to set a minimum shutter speed of at least 1/200s.


Another thing to keep in mind is how you crop the image.  Sometime I may rotate the image slightly so that it looks like the bird is looking off to the side.  I try to keep the beak parallel to the horizon as long as it looks natural.  The editor automatically shows the image in 1/3 quadrants although you can do this yourself visually.  I then try to crop the image and place the bird where it makes sense based on the other aspects of the surroundings that I also want to capture.  If the bird is looking off to once side then I try to line of the beak/eye with the line between the top/middle 1/3 quadrant.  This is usually a good starting point from where I can make slight adjustments to my liking.


Below are a couple example of how the original image was cropped.

[Shortsighted]

Don't Ally just make your day? What a great superpower she has to bring to this forum. Steven, I'm sure that you shoot just a little under-exposed, perhaps at least a third of a stop. Ally might be identifying that in your technique and it makes her drool. I often shoot 2/3 rds of a stop to the left of center and then recoup shadow detail in PS, something that would work even better if I shot in RAW, which I do not do. I can't process RAW Canon files in PS because I do not have the driver to decrypt the image file. Since nothing I shoot is of any consequence, I have not even tried to rectify that situation. RAW files use up too much space and slow down my old camera in burst mode. Also, I find that shooting in RAW is just way too pretentious. To do so might make my head swell. A tumescent noggin could lead to other things, so shooting in RAW might represent a gateway habit forcing me down a rabbit hole I will never emerge from. You know, I might even begin to take things seriously and that would not end well.
I must admit that your Olympus sensor is sooooo sweet. You were wise to have gone that route. I guess you knew that you could afford that multi-thousand dollar lens when you set out on the Olympus journey. Why does everything cost thousands of dollars?That was a rhetorical question and therefore I don't expect a reply.

[Dinusaur]

Great set Steve and also nice explanation about cropping and adjusting the horizon. Love that waterthrush photo - I haven't seen any lately.

[Steve Hood]

Thanks Dinu.  This was the first opportunity to get a good photo of a Waterthrush in a few years.

[Shortsighted]

Amos pond and swamp is almost choked with weeds and very little water except in the main ponds where excavation at the time of the gravel quarry was extensive enough to create a very deep pond. Scuba diving anyone? The north pond is the most interesting because of visitors such a N. Waterthrush. The southern pond is deep enough to attract a loon. The swamp area is better in the early spring when weed growth has not made approach a nightmare.


 

[Ally]

Good find. Can I say I like Steve's water thrush just a tiny bit more. I don't think I have met a water thrush ever.

Amos pond and swamp is almost choked with weeds and very little water except in the main ponds where excavation at the time of the gravel quarry was extensive enough to create a very deep pond. Scuba diving anyone? The north pond is the most interesting because of visitors such a N. Waterthrush. The southern pond is deep enough to attract a loon. The swamp area is better in the early spring when weed growth has not made approach a nightmare.