A Few Old Bird Images

I was in the process of doing some long overdue backups when I found some of my very first attempts at capturing bird images.  These were all taken at least five years ago with a Nikon D70 and a old manual focus 300mm lens.  

It's always interesting to look back at what caught your eye way back then, how you approached the composition of your images and how you and your work has progressed.  Still proud of my first efforts though!

This close up of an Egyptian Goose was taken in the Kruger National Park.  Little fuzzy but the look in her eye makes it work quite nicely.  Some soft emotion in there.

These two Yellow Billed Hornbills were displaying around their nest site in the Kruger National Park.  Got a few nice images of them against the blue sky.

Have not had too many chances since this image to photography Green backed Herons.  We found this guy in a little pond in the Pilansberg Game Reserve as he was busy hunting.

I had an absolute blast photographing Seagulls in Cape Town with a D50 quite a few years ago.  This image was shot early morning from the window of an apartment we were staying at.  I tried to do a few motion blurs and was very happy with this specific one.

The Fish Eagle is still my favorite bird.  This juvenile was hunting around a dam in the Pilansberg Game Reserve while we sat watching.  I still have to get the 'money shot' of a Fish Eagle making contact with it's prey but was quite chuffed with this image as well.  Clicked the shutter right as he took off.

It is most definitely true that the more you practise the better you get.  Both from an artistic and technical point of view you understand the basic photography principles better.  

You 'see' scenes differently.  You get the confidence to start experimenting.   You know that a shot will work rather then firing blindly at everything that moves and hoping for the best.  You don't just know which settings to use for a given scene but you also know why! 

It has been a helluva ride so far and there is a whole lot more to come.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry