I met some egrets today-and I managed to capture some nice pictures..now this one was not my favourite as her head is not as sharp as it should be (like her wings) so i decided to "play" with the picture instead:





this one is as sharp as I like it..however without any "artistic" appearance:





I'm no artist so all this "artistic" anything is just a joke of course...


...thanks for looking! Andras

[bizio]

Great photos! I like both. I was curious to see what kind of lens you used to shoot these.I have the same lens but my K-m it's not at this best at 1600 Iso. Now I'm wondering about a K-5.And some egrets to immortalise, of course...
Keep up the good work!

[imtheguy]

I do like Egrets and you made some very fine shots with the da55-300. Looks like excellent weather for getting nice exposure on those flying bed sheets. I especially like the spooky/dreary backgound on the first and the wide open mouth on the second. The tag on its leg is a very short number. What is its significance as its too short to be a national tag, unless you only have a few Egrets in your country?

[borno]

I really like the first one, I think the trees in the BG and light is very nice.

[slowpez]

Andras, the first one may not be a sharp as you like it but it just goes to prove that sometimes it isn't all in how sharp a photo is. I love it and the second one too. Hate to break it to you but you are an artist.

[Sparkle]

I don't see the "Artistic" emphasis. The photo is nice. My preference is to crop it and brighten it as I have quickly done. Trust you don't mind.

The second photo is quite nice.

[Scottnorwo]

two great shots. lucky to catch the bird posing for you (or fleeing)

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Two very nice images Andras, I like the first one the way it is but the second one could probably use a little more contrast.

[dcmsox2004]

love that 2nd shot..... dave m

[KierraElizabeth]

Great shots!

[Paleo Pete]

Very nice. I see the second one is banded. I haven't gotten any of those yet...If you like Egrets, I just posted a couple in some of my better shots of the year. Didn't post any of the full shots of them flying, guess maybe I should have, but did post a crop of one flying that came out nice. It's hard to decide...

Anyway, nice job on these. I had to look because I shoot a lot of Egrets, wanted to see what someone else is getting.

[Frogfish]

Two beautiful shots.

I originally thought #1 should be cropped but after seeing Sparkle's crop (which is pretty much what I envisaged) I have to say it looks 'caged' and the original gives the necessary space required in front of the bird.

[planedriver]

First of all thank You all for your posts and kind words..

I don't see the "Artistic" emphasis.

for me it is "artistic" because it's not an "egret-picture" with all the details visible (which is good for a dictionary) but a picture I played with to get a certain look..which in many ways slightly unreal..as the saturation, the contrast are exaggerated not to talk about the exposure..nothing more..I was lucky that the early morning fog just opened up and there was good Sunlight with a nice misty background.

Two very nice images Andras, I like the first one the way it is but the second one could probably use a little more contrast.

Regarding the contrast I tried to remain as natural as I can with this picture..so less contrast was added.

..actually I added more contrast to this one from the same series..:





Lee and Pete: I don't know how many egrets actually live here in this country but definitely less than in your place..small country less egrets..but to be serious I live right next to a big lake and a huge part of it is covered with reed..so lot's of egrets here. The tags..well I don't really know..it is probably used to determine how long an egret lives and even more intrestingly to find out where do they fly during the wintertime..probably to Africa. This one might be just too old for the trip so stayed at home.

Susan: ..and thanks!

Andras

[m8o]

planedriver, szervusz! (I didn't know how to spell that until I looked it up just now Sorry to say I speak a very limited amount of simple Hungarian, and never learn to read or write it)

That 2nd egret floored me in the 300mm+ thread and was sorry to see you delete it. Glad someone knew you posted this here so I could come here and say kudos on that shot. I'm amazed at the results given it was taken at ISO1600, f/10, 1/1000s. Love how sharp the beak, feathers, tag, and talons, et al, are. If there ever was an argument for stopping-down when taking your wildlife shots, that's certainly a great example of why we should.

[Paleo Pete]

Tags - Tags are used on many birds, fish and animals to track their migrational habits, breeding patterns, life expectancy and more. I've seen pictures of banded Hummingbirds, and that's how they found out some Hummers were wintering in the US instead of migrating to Mexico and South America as commonly believed. Not all, but some.

Some lady called a man who happened to be involved in banding, told him she had a hummer in her back yard. In Georgia. He told her no, they all migrated a good while back. She convinced him to come take a look, he found, caught and banded a Rufous Hummingbird on her property in Georgia in mid-winter. Until then it was thought they all migrated south. Nope, a few stay here, and since then they have been spotted all along the gulf coast from Florida to Texas in winter.

Just one of the things learned by banding birds...If you contact your local equivalent of wildlife & fisheries with those pictures, they might be able to identify that bird by the inscription on its leg. I didn't know they were doing that, but I definitely see B08 on its leg. Letting them know might be a good idea, and might help them learn a bit more about that bird. He/she may have been banded anywhere in Europe.