ugh this reminds me of the pigeon I saw last week that flew into a car, bounced off the side and then hit another car's tire, spinning with the wheel a couple of times before getting shot out in a puff of feathers on the freeway XP ...but other than that, good capture! lol
Thanks everyone, I really appreciated both the quality and quantity of comments -- I think this is the most I've gotten.
I was trying to shoot a couple of pigeons close-up on the sidewalk. When this one took off I just turned and shot -- camera was on auto-everything, so exposure/aperture were in Olympus' care...
I was most worried about resolution issues, as I had to crop a pretty small section out of a larger frame. But I felt with the eye and head looking so sharp, everything else could stand the blur...I was upset at first about the car, but now I actually think it makes a better background/contrast than the grassy yard across the street would have.
I was so encouraged by all the comments and the camera's performance, I tried a similar shot the next week:
Pigeons in Hooperville
Hi Paul, I got your pic to critique :-) The first thing that struck me when I looked at this pic is the sharpness of the pigeon's eye and that it seemed to be looking directly at me. It is amazing how you captured that eye, the color is a wonderful deep red/orange and it is definitely the focal point of your image.
As I mentioned below in my original comment the motion blur on the wings is very effective and works well with the in-focus body and head.
The car in the background is somewhat distracting though and it was just unfortunate that it was driving past at the moment you shot the pigeon. You could have blurred it out a little by reducing your shutter speed to between 1/30 and 1/60, which is usually the best panning speed. This would taken the background into a motion blur but at the same time would have created too much motion blur on the pigeon's wings.
Maybe it would just have been best to ask the pigeon to do a series of fly-by's until you got the correct exposure in :-)
All in all a very good pic which is mirrored by the 5.6 score it received. Well done.
This is almost a really great capture. If it were only a little clearer in terms of the subject. The car could remain blurred with little ill effect but the subject should be clearer. Really close. Good effort
I dont know what you were trying to achieve with this photo but for a second i thought the car was about to hit the bird, theres definatly the element of movement and tension, as for Fauna i think (although i doubt you were thinking this when you took the pictue) that this is a modern interpretation of the dangers man has inflicted on nature.
The title is so correct; pigeons are big source of diseases :). Now about your picture, I like the idea the photo suggests (maybe that's because I'm not so fond of pigeons) and the way you've captured the motion. On the other hand there is a little too much motion in it; nothing is really in focus (I realize that this was a very difficult shot to make).
Man your timing is fantastic. Animals are hard to get, especially when they are moving that fast. A little blurry, but that is nothing really, I would generally expect a lot more blur for this type of shot. Graet job
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