Darin when I look at your photos it looks like the camera settings are for landscape, the water/background seems to be exposed properly but not the bird. In the first photo the whites on the bird is blown out but the water is exposed correctly. I think if you can adjust the camera to expose for the bird your shots will come out much sharper.
Can I suggest that you find out a little bit more about exposure settings on your camera, on my camera I set my exposure metering to spot metering. What this does is only looks at a very small (3.8%) area of the screen (middle) and selects the correct shutter speed to give me the best exposure for whats in the centre of my frame. Your pics seem to be exposing for a greater area and keeping the whole photo much better exposed but having a negative effect on the birds. When you shoot the birds you dont really care if the background is not exposed properly so its important to get the bird exposed properly. I'm sure once you sort this out you will find you get much better results.
Good find Darin. I still haven't seent that Double-banded Plover.
Cheers, Owen.
Nice pics. Always something going on at the sea shore, around lakes, and other watery places.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
Darin when I look at your photos it looks like the camera settings are for landscape, the water/background seems to be exposed properly but not the bird. In the first photo the whites on the bird is blown out but the water is exposed correctly. I think if you can adjust the camera to expose for the bird your shots will come out much sharper.
Can I suggest that you find out a little bit more about exposure settings on your camera, on my camera I set my exposure metering to spot metering. What this does is only looks at a very small (3.8%) area of the screen (middle) and selects the correct shutter speed to give me the best exposure for whats in the centre of my frame. Your pics seem to be exposing for a greater area and keeping the whole photo much better exposed but having a negative effect on the birds. When you shoot the birds you dont really care if the background is not exposed properly so its important to get the bird exposed properly. I'm sure once you sort this out you will find you get much better results.