Osprey with catch, Catawba River, North Carolina

[Larry W Brown]

• SONY ILCE-6400
• ƒ/6.3
• 600mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 1600
• Flash not fired
• Tue, 12 October 2021 10:29 AM

I caught this shot right after I was capturing a Great Egret in the shallows...he came out of nowhere!

Sony A6400, 200-600 mm G lens
f6.3
1/2000 sec
ISO 1600
600 mm
Hand held
Uncropped
10/12/2021 - 10:29am
Sun over my right shoulder

 

[arash_hazeghi]

welcome to BPN, I like the action, the image appears to be out of focus unfortunately and the opsrey was angled away from us a bit. dark BG was nice.

TFS

 

[William Dickson]

Hi Larry....Lovely scene....yes to the bird being out of focus.....Also I would crop some more from the left to leave more room in front of the bird...and I think it can do with some CW rotation......just out of curiosity where was the focus point....It is always better to get the critical focus point on the head of the bird...Keep at it, with that equipment, I am sure you will get better results...

Will

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Sorry nothing to add, it's what I would have called a nearly shot, see the comments and I am sure you will nail it pretty quickly.

 

[Larry W Brown]

Thnx for the great responses guys!

I was using the Wide focus area, which covers about 70% of the frame, so the focus point was probably on another part of the bird and not the head. I'm switching to Zone which only has 9 focus points and I will practice getting that point on the bird's head when in flight. I did try the Zone FA at first, but it was super hard at 900mm (and with the bird that close) so I reverted to Wide.

Good points on the orientation of the bird. This was the first time I captured an Osprey right after grabbing a fish out of the water, and while breaking in my new 200-600 lens, so I was pretty stoked But I will have other opportunities and improvement is my goal.

Thank you for the constructive feedback, very valuable to me. I don't get this on FaceBook

Larry

 

[arash_hazeghi]

I am not really familiar with the SOny a6400? camera but in the A1 and A9 series zone AF should easily lock and maintain focus on a white osprey against dark BG. try to pan smoothly with the bird

TFS

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Larry, I've never had the chance of seeing an Osprey catch a fish from so close - that was a pretty neat scene you got to witness! With those techs, you had enough speed to freeze the action, but you got some good advice to get the bird sharp. Keep those focus points on or near the face...and from further out like this at least on the body. If I can add something else, it;s to keep the image level. I know it is sometimes tough to do in the heat of the moment when handheld, but here are easy fixes in post to fix that too. Anyhow, keep at it, and you will see improvement with practice and experience...all part of the fun:S3:

 

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Larry and welcome to BPN. There is lots of great advice above. If you ever want to upgrade to an a9 ii or an a1, get in touch via e-mail. I can save you some money.

with love, artie