Today we visited the Edithvale Wetlands and saw lots of water and land birds. I had never been before and it was a perfect still and sunny day with lots of birds.
European Greenfinch
Willie wagtail that was eating insects I disturbed
Swamp harrier, one of many over the wetland
Australian Shovelers, a first for me
A pair of Straw necked ibises
Pair of Grey Teals
Pair of Chestnut Teals
Purple Swamphen in the sun
what are you looking at!!! This Australan hobby let me get unbelievably close, less than 15 metres
The same bird and it filled up the viewfinder
The most surprising find. A Magpie Goose. Rare in melbuourne but sometimes visits Edithvale wetlands so I was very lucky to see him.
Other birds seen but not any shots of:
Musk Duck - male with throat pouch whistling loudly
Red wattlebird
white-plumed Honeyeater
Noisy miner
Masked Lapwing
Golden-headed Cisticola
Little Grassbird - heard
Richard's Pipit - 3 flying over
Little Raven
Pacific Black duck
Crake or Rail, I'm not sure which species flying away
Enjoy and thanks for looking.
Owen that is a lovely days birding by the sound of it and the look of it. What a great selection...lovely to get a hobby nice and still so close to you and I particularly love the shot of the Purple Swamphen .....beautiful composition . Also those teals are a stunning little duck aren't they? I have never seen one.
Well done again and thank you for posting them for us.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Thanks Birdie. I will definitely be going back and will be wearing gumboots to do a bit of wading.
The male chestnut teals have wonderful greens and browns and that red eye is so bright. The grey teals look very much like the females of the chestnut teals but are slightly duller with more white on the throat.
Cheers, Owen.
A very productive day for you, Owen. A great list of birds and some excellent shots to remember the day. My wife and I were at The Briars Historic Park today and almost called in to Edithvale on the way home. I now wish we had..... I presume the hide is still closed, so from where did you take your shots?
.
Cheers,
.
George
Cheers,
George
Melbourne, VIC
The Edithvale wetlands is one of the most underated areas in Victoria a lot of my BOP photos were taken there,if you can find your way into the southen end and don't mind getting a bit muddy the swans nest 10m and from shore and i have lost count of how many diffrent species i have seen there,well done with the Hobby i was never able to get a desent photo of them.
Nice ones, Owen. I'm interested to learn that you had a magpie goose sighting.
That willie wagtail looks a bit grumpy 8-)
Thanks for the pics. I have not been to Edithvale wetlands but they're not far from me so I will try to get there soon.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Great collection of photos Owen especially your hobby and magpie goose.
Great pictures Owen, it's a pity Edithvale is a bit far for a day trip from Townsville or I'd be there later today!!
The Hobby up close is a great shot, have you tried lighten it in post prodution or better still when the bird is against a bright sky dial in some expousure compensation to lighten the bird, it will blow out the sky but that is not really an issue.I downloaded your picture and added some lighting to the shadows and although not the best way to do it, it really made a difference.I can post the lighten version if you want.
Ed Townsville NQ
I was thinking the same thing Ed. Owen a perfect example of the exp compensation that Ed is talking about would be Hev's Kestrel/Brown Falcon shots in the Ningaloo Reef thread.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Nice variety and great shots too! Love the Shovelers and Chestnut Teals, I've never seen either of them.
Well done Owen, thanks for sharing.
Nice series Owen. I agree with Ed, re exposure. You are probably using matrix or evaluative metering right? Then if you have a dark bird but a bright sky, the meter will underexpose the bird, because the sky dominates and the meter will want to expose more for the sky than the bird. I tend to dial in at least +1 stop overexposure in a situation like this and do a quick histogram check to ensure I have not clipped the whites (little clipping is OK though). Then adjust compensation as required. Sometimes I just take an insurance shot at pretty much the setting I have. Although I always return exposure to 0 compensation and dial in when I see the image in my mind just before composing. It kind of becomes second nature after years and years. :-)
Thanks for all the comments. I really don't have much idea about using the exposures properly, I might have to learn that sometime. the ISO was on 1600 but I am no good with the f stop and aperture values.
George the hide was closed so we walked up the western side of the wetland North of edithvale road and there is a nice grass area with trees on the edge of the wetland with good views. The shovelers and magpie goose were both taken on a raised platform near the western hide.
Ed I'd love to see the lightened photo of the hobby so if you post it that would be great.
Cheers, Owen.
Not the best way to lighten a picture (very noisy) but it gives you an idea of what can be done.
Ed Townsville NQ
That's much improved ed. Wish I knew how to use exposures so I could get better shots.
Cheers, Owen.
Owen
No need to wish, just listen, learn and put into practice and you will improve. :-)
Owen....that is so true ....I have never had a formal lesson in photography in my life. Just started at 21 got an old VERY manual camera and read and read and read ( before internet days of course). Got a part time job in a photography store and took all the books home. Spent 80% of my wages at the time on developing and printing. Picked anyone's brains that I could and am still learning and picking LOL I befriended heaps of older people who were willing to spend time and have patience with my questions. Your shots are great, composition is good and you have a good start with one of today's cameras.
So get into it!!!! ( When you have finished your school work of course :') )
Sunshine Coast Queensland
LOL Birdie good point. I do need to finish my schoolwork first but I can still make time to do other things.
cameras of today are very helpful and have great technology so it would be great to learn lots more about cameras.
Cheers, Owen.
I have been using cameras for nearly 40years and im still learning,as birdie and windhover have said read listen learn but most of all put into practice, digital is great you can see staight away what your photos look like and what you have to change,good conposition is what makes a great photo so your half way there already the rest comes with practice.
try looking up ken rockwell love him or hate him but he knows his stuff
With regard to exposure Owen, you need to understand that to get the best image quality, you need to learn to trust the histogram of your camera. So, really, the LCD screen is good to review sharpness and histogram, but not overall tonality, as if you end up shooting and wanting images look like a final print on the back of your camera, then your image quality will not be as good as if you were to understand and use the histogram to your best advantage. I wrote an educational thread here and you may want to read it. Just note how overexposed the RAW image appears compared to the final presentation. :-) Enjoy your learning matey!
http://www.feathersandphotos.com.au/forum/showthread.php?7006-Shooting-to-the-right-%28example%29.
Thanks Akos. I don't have photoshop ATM so what you see is what you get. I am really interested in getting the exposures right when I am actually out shooting somewhere, rather than on the computer.
Cheers, Owen.
So Owen, I am not sure what you mean. Do you mean when you review the image on the back of the camera it's exactly HOW you want it to look as if it were printed on paper?
I think Owen is saying that he wants to get it right in camera and not rely on PP in photoshop Akos..... always a good way to aim at least.
You can still use the histogram to give good esp though can't you Akos? I am using it and have found that most of my stuff is too far to the left .... making the end result full of problems . When I install Photoshop I am hoping to correct the best ones though as I have shot them in RAW just in case I get that one in a million shot one day! LOL
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Birdie, exposing to the sensor's (not one's eyes) best capability is the best way to maintain the image quality. The post processing is a necessary evil of digital photography. The exposure is the first and most important part of capturing of an image, I am not talking about cloning, or masking objects or blurring backgrounds (other than with the lens' optics). Just exposure, then to adjust the exposure in software. BTW, without advocating anything, if Owen is a "typical" teenager, then he will know how to find Photoshop. :-)
I agree with you (you know that) that some photographers go way too far with processing. But to get the BEST information (that's what the sensor records; data) out of an image, then you need to expose correctly (in the digital sense), then correct during post processing. Before, when people shot film, the labs would have done the post processing. Now partly the camera (how the user sets it up) and then the computer processes and fine tunes the final image. The sensor records light and the shoot to the right principle makes sure that the photographer captures the MOST AMOUNT OF DATA available to the sensor. Why?
I could rave on more, but this little article will explain the way the sensor sees the world. You see that most of the info is towards the right of the histogram as the right side is where MOST data is captured, not the left side. But you must shoot RAW to achieve the post processing ability to create natural looking, high quality images. OK, this may be a little too technical for some who just want a snap shot and are happy with that, but anyone interested enough will appreciate the info. :-)
http://www.wildlifephotography.nl/digital-photography/expose-to-the-right
I do have a simpler editing program Akos and I am your typical teenager but I do know how to find Photoshop.
i don't take RAW shots.
Cheers, Owen.
I meant typical in a nice way Owen, :-) in other words, teenagers know what and where. ;-)
You should shoot RAW in my opinion, but it's entirely up to you in the end. RAW gives you the best possible optimization during the post process. You can adjust white balance and many other parameters. When shooting jpegs, you lose a lot of post processing capability.
Oops, I meant i am NOT your typical teenager! ;^l
RAW photos take up lots of room but if I think I'm going to get a good shot maybe I will use RAW in the future.
I will still need to do a lot of learning about all kinds of ways to set the exposure.
Cheers, Owen.
Akos, is there any way I can let more light into the camera with the long lens and not slow down the shutter speed too much. I thought you would know about that sort of thing. ;^)
Cheers, Owen.
I'll have a crack at that one Owen..... Highest ISO you can use, and a monopod or a tripod ( in the absence of Image stabilisation) . Of course you get the "noise" or grainy effect in the pictures with high ISO. these are all my reasons for not being happy with many of my shots ... no way round them though unfortunately.
Eventually we are going to run out of light because of the nature of the subjects and the need for freezing movement.
That is why people pay big dollars for the faster lenses...ie the lenses with the widest aperture openings such as 300 ml F2.8 lens.
this could go way past what you want to know Owen but there are heaps of easy reading sites on the net.
Happy researching LOL
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Owen if you take a look at my over lit flycatcher photo it was taken on a slightly over cast day at about 12m in heavy cover using a 300f4 with a 2xtc and a flash extender there's no way i could have got this shot without flash thats how i get enough light
Akos might know a better way but this works for me
Oops Sparrow ,,,, because
i only have a small on camera flash I totally forgot that option LOL
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Don't worry I've used up to ISO 3200 on birds i just hate the post processing and with my shaky old hands i always have a monopod handy
Over the last few days I have had many opportunities with the green Catbirds in my garden but with fairly woeful results thanks to low light and too much noise plus having to slow the shutter down even with a mono AND 1600 ISO. That is tops for my camera unfortunately.... but I had a lit of fun watching them .
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Sorry folks, I think I am going way out of line with all the technical boring stuff here. I apologize. You will not hear my boring rants anymore. :-)
I for one enjoy your "rants"you take your photography seriously and it shows,my background is in a different aria of photography and really is boring!
Birds put the fun back into taking photos and i am enjoying the challenge of trying to get better at it.
I would like to see more on the technical stuff from you and others who have been doing this for a while maybe under another heading like on that other forum, yes i read your "rants"there to!
I didn't see anyone complaining Akos...this was a good discussion and I agree with sparrow that we should have a Forum for more technical stuff in the new set up. many of us enjoy learning still and unfortunately for you ....you seem to be the one with the most knowledge that is willing to share :')
Sunshine Coast Queensland
I have got a more powerful seperate flash but it needs to be taken to someone to get it fixed. The ISO is usually on a high setting even in good lighting because of the light demands of the lens. I have also tried using a tripod and they are very helpful because the camera stays stock still.
I think I should give a monopod a go because it would be easier to carry around with the camera on it.
Cheers, Owen.
I am a complete convert to a mono now...you are right..easier to carry and once you get used to then very easy to use as an extension of the camera. I don't own a tripod that is worth using anyway :(
Sunshine Coast Queensland
We own a good tripod but not a monopod so looks like I will need to do a bit of searching. I did try using the tripod once and loved the sharper results.
Cheers, Owen.