Three baby herons

Comments?

good capture and being able to get the reach to see them. however, with this lens at this aperture, i would expect a tack sharp result (at least on one of the birds .. with the DOF at this range, i imagine getting all of them in focus at f5.6 would be a no go). is it focusing on that branch in the middle?

Herons are so hard, Peggy. I congratulate you for getting so close. I've been tracking them for 3 years, and never got as near. I have some shots in my portfolio of adults, no babies, as the rookeries were simply too far for my lens or any other I've borrowed to get as nice a close-up. If you have time, take a look. This is a very nice shot, and I'd be happy to have one like it. Keep up the good work!

I debated whether to post this one because it isn't really sharp, but I liked it so much I posted it anyway. I was shooting through lots of branches at varying distances, and the autofocus just couldn't cope, so I had to go with manual focus. At that distance, it's hard to make fine focus adjustments or be able to tell exactly when the focus is sharpest. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them because I always have this problem when I shoot manual at a distance, and it's frustrating.

Peggi, sorry if i implied that if this isn't tack sharp, the image shouldn't be posted. i have only shot at near 300mm (280 on a 70-200 with 1.4x TC) and not attempted a shot through so many obstacles. i would have guessed that you had it on auto and it focused more on the branch. the 10D sensors are quite wide so that's what i figured happened. the viewfinders on the below 1 series DSLRs aren't the greatest either from what i read on these forums, but then again, i have never held a 10D. i also imagine some compression artifact might be present. anyway, i look forward to seeing more shots. :)