Thanks! Interesting insight, as I still have near to zero knowledge on any wildlife I encounter, particularly birds ;)

He thinks he’s fancy, for sure!

Ahah, thanks :)

Your first point is the key. On your suggestion, trimming the bottom would put the reflection out of the middle - which I didn’t like - and the darker color I thought helped “hiding” it a bit and balance the brighter sky. I tried vignette on this other shot, while in the post photo I didn’t want to darken the sky (I’m really not a fan of adding artificial vignetting):

I’ll for sure work on this perspective with the 45mm and longer lenses, taking into account the feedback I got here :)

Yep, was my first outing with the RF 45mm F1.2

Bigger beard than Santa! 🎅

I’m grown to hate them honestly: since weeks, bigger and bigger flocks dominate the skies around my home, going tree to tree like locusts. I bet they are the reason why I don’t see many other birds around - but I might be wrong and don’t know anything about seasonal and avian fauna behaviors…

I’ll have to read more about them, but it is indeed the only one I saw and recognized since starting photographing birds (around 1 year ago).

Thanks for the heads up, I also see it and it’s added automatically when I share a PixelFed link through Mlem on iOS… I’ll maybe look into it but the Fediverse is really messy sometimes 😆

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fond of this picture (I wouldn’t have posted it otherwise), but the couple of thin branches directly behind the bird break its silouhette a bit. The rest is 100% to my liking.

This is one of the reasons I love wildlife photography: some of these creatures are so tiny and fast, that appreciating their colors and patterns with the naked eye is really challenging. With a big telephoto and if you get close enough though, you can pick out all the tiny details of these awesome chirping fluffy things :)

Awesome pictures!

I’m seeing a bit of LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberration): maybe something you can try to work on with Darktable. Stacking should also get rid of it.

Please take it as constructive as possible, the photos are really nice :)

EDIT: sorry for commenting a 1 month old post :D

Near the Ammersee (Lake Ammer) in Bavaria, Germany. There is a region where these harriers gather for communal roosting in winter - I found this out only thanks to some explanation boards at the place and after I got some shots of what I thought was a much more common buzzard :)

Nice hues, beautiful portrait!

Oh thanks!

Well, busted!! The autofocus mode reads AI servo. It is all just a big lie.

Glad you like it!

Thanks! Yes they are fascinating. This one gulped a pretty sizable frog or fish moments before I got out the camera, unfortunately for me and for its prey.

That’s sweet! But yes I was really captured by that bright azure bird I spotted during a jog, it stand out like a gem in the grey, brown and cloudy winter surroundings. Every couple of days I check that spot with the camera in hand, didn’t meet it again. Wish me luck! :)

Thanks :) I was hoping to see a Kingfisher near that spot. I’m seeing many more birds than I expected with low temperatures and a bit of snow. I’m an absolute beginner and don’t really know behavior patterns of any animal I’m trying to photograph though

Sooo unfortunately - as already found out by another Pixelfed user some weeks ago - cross posting directly from Pixelfed has big caveats: one of them is the loss of multi-picture posts where only the first is seen on Lemmy.

Here my original post, with all 4 sides: https://pixelfed.social/p/LucaPero/914475114515075522

I also tried to reply to you with my Pixelfed account (where I see your comment) but to no avail.