Anne,
I like the action portrayed by the two birds in flight. A longer lens might have helped but the main issue is that your shutter speed was too low (slow) for birds in flight; especially these that are not particularly large. Next time set you shutter speed to at least 1/1500 or faster. I don't know which fstop was selected but maybe a larger fstop would have helped blur the structures in the background more. Right now, they are out of focus but not enough. In PS I tried to clone those buildings out (see attached). I also sharpened the image to help remove the motion blur.   Posted: 01/07/2025 04:32:34

Thanks Dean! Next year I'll up the shutter speed and use a larger F/stop. The bigger problem is that they looked sharp to me! And I did have my eyes examined recently. So what do I do about that?   Posted: 01/07/2025 15:11:36

Yikes, that was like looking in a magnifying mirror! I guess I'll do that from now on with my images. Thanks Dean!!   Posted: 01/07/2025 21:17:22

An interesting capture with the open beak on the back bird and the angles of the legs on both. Yes, the background needs more blurring; it looks a little like old Germanic . My eyes tried to read/decipher three words there and distracted me from the birds. Yes, they are not sharp. I know how hard it can be to capture birds in flight from a recent club trip to a bird sanctuary!   Posted: 01/11/2025 03:14:11

Thanks Diana, I don't know what you're seeing to read in the background since it's water. My problem is that it almost looks like sky. I do appreciate your comment because that's how I learn.   Posted: 01/11/2025 03:20:02

Thanks for your encouragement Erin.   Posted: 01/19/2025 23:12:14

Anne, Sounds like an enjoyable and challenging photo shot! Birds in flight are difficult and getting a pleasing arrangement of two is even harder. My biggest suggestion: Keep trying. Magic can happen. Yes, your photo isn't sharp. Handheld shoots at long distances require fast shutter speeds. The row of items (other birds?) in the back could be softer, but they would still be distracting. Since you couldn't shoot from a higher angle to get them out of the frame, your only choice is to crop them out, and fortunately, that's doable. The sky isn't contribution any contextual information to your photo, so you could use a tighter crop. The rest of my comments are for post-processing. (I don't know if you are using this tool, but it's fun.) The photo would benefit from stronger subject-to-background separation, which can be done by lightening the white areas of the birds or darkening the sky. If you apply a tighter crop, the large open area in the upper right puts too much emphasis on the single-color sky, detracting from the delicate birds. This can be corrected by adding subtle tone changes to break up the single color. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pictures.   Posted: 01/20/2025 20:47:38

Kyle, your Christmas day sounds wonderful. Good for you for continuing with the cloudy weather. I agree with what the others have suggested (need faster speeds, more sharpness, and the birds in the background taken out.) My suggestion is to go back on a bright day, either in the morning or evening when the light is good, and just experiment with your settings. I love taking bird photos!   Posted: 01/20/2025 21:07:14

Thanks Kyle and Rita

Got it--faster shutter speed! I do appreciate your advice. That's doable and so is taking out background distractions.   Posted: 01/21/2025 14:55:28