My son and I were kayaking on the CT River last year when the tide was low. We came upon an area with only a few inches of water and were amazed at the number of egrets feeding on small fish there. After spending a couple of minutes in one spot, they would gracefully take flight and set down in a nearby spot to continue feeding. These were short flights and with about 8-10 egrets in the immediate area, it almost appeared to be a choreographed dance.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments and suggestions are welcome and thanks for viewing. I do wonder if a polarizing filter would have toned down the water brightness.
Technical Details
Sony RX10M4, ISO 80, f/4, 1/640s, 310mm (35mm equiv.). About a 25% crop; toned down the highlights a bit and added some contrast.
Jim, this is an impressive capture. Indeed the egret looks like an ice skater dancing. I guess a polarizer could have helped with the brightness. My eyes could be fooling me, but it appears the image is a bit soft. I clearly see excellent sharpness on the feet, but the head does not appear as sharp to me. Nevertheless, the overall image is striking, particularly because of the egret’s pose.
Thank you for taking the time to review my photo @EgĂdio_LeitĂŁo . Yes, you’re correct about the sharpness; the lens isn’t the best but I like to travel light and the camera is a nice size.
I like the pose and composition in this shot, Jim. It looks like the Egret was making a hard right pivot as it was landing.
First of all, about the polarizer question; it definitely would have helped with the water glare but also would have caused other difficulties. Looking at the large version it appears that the body head and legs are actually in focus but the wings are blurred. I don’t think the aperture was the reason as f/4 on that tiny sensor would be equivalent to about f/10 or f/11 on a full frame. Your shutter speed was actually quite low even for that big of a bird when it’s flapping hard and I suspect that is the reason for the blur on the wings. A higher ISO (maybe 250 - 320 on that camera would have given you lots more shutter speed. The polarizer would have made that problem even worse as it cuts down on the light. The downside of using higher ISO to get shutter speed is that the small sensor is making a lot of noise even at ISO-80 (quite visible in the large version) so that would be even worse at higher ISO settings. Essentially you’re confronted with all the down sides of shooting with the small sensor. The RX10 does pretty good for static images where you can use the ISO-80 and don’t need the shutter speed but fast moving subjects will always be difficult.
@Gary_Minish, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed critique. I do try to keep my ISO low but could probably bump it up a bit to get faster shutter speeds when photographing birds.
