Great Blue Heron With Snake

[Eric Diller]

GBH flying off with breakfast.
Shot at:
500mm, F4.8, 1/1600sec, Iso 400




http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h263/xmobe540/Orlando%20Wetlands%208-23-08/ECD_0400.jpg






http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h263/xmobe540/Orlando%20Wetlands%208-23-08/ECD_0401.jpg

[Nill Toulme]

Fabulous... and it looks like the snake is flapping too. ;-)

Nill

[Don Cohen]

Cool shots, Eric! Very unusual! Excellent exposure.

I have mixed feelings about the square cropping, although I suspect the original might have limited your options. It's tough keeping flying birds in the frame at all, let alone, where in the frame they are!

[Jaime Johnson]

Very Impressive Eric - nice job!

[Reginald Johnson]

Wow, amazed how you could catch him so exquisitively in flight! Following a bird in flight with a 500mm can't be easy...

regi

[John Angulat]

Hi Eric,
Great series of shots! Well done!

http://www.lightsimage.com

[Ron Morse]

That is a really cool shot. I've seen shots of them standing with their prey but never flying with it.

[Nicolas Claris]

Eric
These are beautifull images.

I couldn't resist for a little quick and dirty play… If you don't like it, just PM me and I'll delete it.
But I would really hope for a big laugh…

http://mnclaris.free.fr/forum/Anim_ECD_0401-3.gif

[Don Cohen]

So where are the emoticons when we really need them???

LOL!!

[doug anderson]

Nice shots. How close? What lens?

[Nicolas Claris]

Hi DOug
Original post: Shot at:
500mm, F4.8, 1/1600sec, Iso 400

Nice shots. How close? What lens?

[Eric Diller]

#8
Today, 05:13 PM
Nicolas Claris
OPF Administrator/Moderator



Not at all...that was one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile. Would love to know how you did that!

[Doug Kerr]

So where are the emoticons when we really need them???

Need them?

Best regards,

Doug

[Nicolas Claris]

#8
Today, 05:13 PM
Nicolas Claris
OPF Administrator/Moderator



Not at all...that was one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile. Would love to know how you did that!
Hi Eric
Easy, but I'm going to a long day work, will post a short explanation tonight…
Have a good flight (and breakfast BTW) until then!

PS. If you click on the "Quote" button you will get the message you want to reply to embeded and quoted into your reply… See just above in this post.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Would love to know how you did that!

Hi Eric,

To save Nicolas the time, and you the wait; he combined multiple images into an animated "gif" file.

The more recent versions of Photoshop make it easier to do than earlier versions (which required a companion program ImageReady, IIRC), so the actual instructions how to do it oneself vary by version. Other photoeditors also offer similar functionality but I'm not familiar with their specifics.
Search the help function for "animated GIF" if you want to explore.

You basically layer the individual images, optionally resize, and register to reduce differences besides motion, then convert into GIF.

The GIF file format, although offering fewer colors (256 max.), does offer some benefits like good browser support, transparancy, and animation (although crude and inefficient, but it does work).

Bart

[doug anderson]

Hi DOug
Original post:

Thank you. Good work.

[Nicolas Claris]

Of course you nailed it Bart!
I used 1st CS3 to get one image over the othe one as a layer.
Then I aligned vertically the flying guy.
Cropped both images together
Did a quick and (dirty!) selection of "each" bird, then cut & paste each as a new layer
Chose one of the background and did a horizontal blurr ('bout 100 pix)
Dupmicated that background and paste each bird on one of the similar BG

Saved as PSD the completed file containing the "2" birds

Opened that PSD in Image Ready
Set a duration of 0.3 sec to each layer/frame
Saved as an image et voilà…

Took me about 15 minutes…

[Eric Diller]

Nice shots. How close? What lens?
GBH flying off with breakfast.
Shot at:
500mm, F4.8, 1/1600sec, Iso 400

Distance 125 feet +/_

I used a Nikkor F2.8 300mm lens with a 1.7 teleconverter.

[Eric Diller]

Nice shots. How close? What lens?

Nikkor lens 300mm F2.8 with a 1.7 x T.C.
GBH flying off with breakfast.
Shot at:
500mm, F4.8, 1/1600sec, Iso 400