What's the Score?

This was my best image of the day.  I used my new scoring checklist.  It scored 5.5 

10 Point BIF Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?		Close
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp		Close
Does lighting enhance the image?		No
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1	Yes
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?	1	Yes
Does color enhance the image?		No
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?	1	Yes
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1	Adequate
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1	Ok
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	.5	Flying

This starling had difficulty eating from the suet feeder.  He tried to fly into and grab a quick bite. You had to be there - my photo doesn't tell the story very well.  I scored it a 5.

10 Point BIF Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?		Close
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp		Not completely
Does lighting enhance the image?		No
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1	Yes
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?		Second bird is distracting
Does color enhance the image?		No
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?	1	Yes
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1	Adequate
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	1

I've learned something from this checklist already. 

Spray and Pray allowed me to capture actions that occurred faster than I could react.  It provided choices for wing position and pose.

Spray and Pray didn't produce a single image with good lighting or color.  If I want to improve, I'll need to solve those problems.

Overall, focus was a huge problem - My 400mm lens has very little depth of focus.  I need to either find way to increase the depth of focus, change lens to something wider or convince he birds to fly along a path that I'm already focused on.

I Suck at Birds in Flight Photography

I tried to photograph the birds around my feeder again this weekend.  It didn't go well.  I took lots of exposures, but even Spray and Pray failed again.  I suck at Bird in Flight photography.  I want to change that.

It is easy to lose focus in the heat of the moment.  To paraphrase an often quoted saying " When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your objective was to photograph the swamp."  I had plenty of birds flocking around the feeder and I brought home hundreds of photos that were not worth saving.  If Spray and Pray doesn't work, what will?

I made an important decision.  I decided to develop a way to score my BIF photos so I could measure them with a better standard than "this photo sucks".  After much thought, I came up with a ten point checklist to use as a standard.

10 Point BIF Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp
Does lighting enhance the image?
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?
Does color enhance the image?
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?

If a photo scores 10 on this scale, it will be a pretty good BIF photo.  If it doesn't, I have some specific things to work on.