Birds in Motion - my bank holiday challenge!

Hi all,

I've been out and about the past couple of days visiting local bird hotspots to get some practice with my bird in flight capturing technique. I just thought I'd share a few of the best to see what you guys thought!

I went on a Bird Photography course last month, and the emphasis was basically getting shots of birds which are a bit different from the normal duck on pond, robin on stick shots that are easy to get right and seen far too often. I've since been trying to get shots that are a bit different, so would love any feedback on these ones!


Gadwall at WWT Llanelli





Greylag Geese at WWT Llanelli



Red Kites at Llanddeusant





Thanks guys

wow fantastic shots, cant pick just one! I like them all.

Some great shots Nicola, LOVE the composition in the 1st red kite one, well done

Definately not the easiest things to photograph I should know. Have to agree about taking shots away from the usual and getting shots like these is very rewarding.
If I were to be ultra critical about the first 2 photos, just a second later/sooner (depending on either landing or takeoff) with the splashdown would have created more impact with the water action, but that is me being very very picky.

Can I make a small suggestion having looked at the exif files. If you go on the camera
menu to the settings with a spanner and scroll to the second page in the camera to copyright information you should be able to type in your name (Artist) and copyright. when done leave that in the on position as well as the heading above it called Image Authentication.
With pictures as good as these you really should have some means of proving you took them incase they get hijacked on the internet.

http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/ Link for exif file download


Bazza

Thanks both, especially for the advice re. copyright. I guess I'd never really thought anyone want want to pinch anything I've taken so far so hadn't bothered, but I certainly will now!

Nicola

That is one thing about this group, if a member spots something that may be of help or interest generally they will post about it.
One of our members had their picture hijacked not long ago, and then the hijacker pretended it was their own photo and got a artist to do line drawings of it to sell. Luckily that particular member found out and managed to get compensation, all drawings destroyed by the innocent artist. So it does happen

There are several ways of protecting your pictures - reduce the image to make it impossible to copy via enlargement-have exif information inbedded - watermark it- or put a siggie on it- the last method can be fairly easily removed.

If I were you I would do copies of those photos with a watermark ( it doesn't really detract from the pictures) and repost the copies, keeping the originals for yourself . Honestly they are too good to leave on a site without protection.



Oh by the way I should listen to my own advice

Bazza

Lol I wouldn't worry too much tbh - images posted on the web are usually too small to be of any real use to image thieves

Azz
Remember what happened to Dawn and her photo?
I have just "lifted" the picture of the Red Kit onto my computer and blurred the background. It produces a very good marketing 7x5 picture. Now I removed it off my computer because I
don't "steal" pictures. So in this instant what has been posted needs protection in my opinion.

Bazza

you don't need to embed copyright info into the exif data or anything else to indicate copyright. An image will ALWAYS be copyrighted by default to the original photographer - unless those copyrights are sold, waived or owned by the photographers employers.

JR
You may well be right in theory, BUT PROVING it belongs to that photographer is a completely different thing. Unless there is some form of identification within the picture/data, the person who took the photo would be hard pushed to prove legal claim to it.


Bazza