Joining a Downy

Gallery: AvianPosted April 5, 201176 views6 comments

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)

Thee were so many Downy's and Hairy's around here lately: must mean the bugs are waking up. NIce to see Spring arriving.

This image shows a pretty small bird on a pretty big tree. I made it a large crop because the detail holds up well and it allows us to join the woodpecker in closely looking at this tree.

All comments very welcome.

1D Mark IV, 400 mm f/5.6, 1.4x TC, hand held: ISO 1600, 1/1000 s, f/9, 0 EV, 2.7 MP after cropping, NR, exposure adjustment, sharpening.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on April 5, 2011 at 1:37 PM

The textures of the tree and the Downy perched in the middle of them make this interesting to me Steve.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on April 5, 2011 at 8:47 PM

Interesting combination of textures in this shot, Steve. Very little noise for the high ISO and the heavy crop.

I suspect that kids are hatched where you are; the birds here are just starting to nest.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 5, 2011 at 10:47 PM

I like the way you handled this one, Steve. The dof that includes both the bird and the tree works for me. Excellent exposure and detail.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on April 6, 2011 at 10:14 PM

I like the pose and the comp you chose, Steve. that 1Div is working pretty nicely for you--I try not to go past 640 on the 7D, 800 max. I'm not seeing as much detail in the bird's head as I'd like but, given the crop/ISO combo, this looks surprisingly good. I wish the bird had caught a little of the sun, but that might have been tricky with the exposure.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Canuel on April 7, 2011 at 2:27 AM

Not an eye catcher in the color department but as others have noted, some nice, interesting textures. The slight curve of the trunk, the hanging pose, and the head turn toward you make this work for me.

Registered on September 12, 2010, 53 Posts, 660 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on April 7, 2011 at 8:39 PM

Thank you all for your very thoughtful comments. Texture no doubt is an important attribute of this shot. However, I thought that the intimacy of this shot was what appealed most to me: I felt that it almost allowed us to be another woodpecker working beside this one......[I note that no one else apparently reacted this way.....must be my overactive imagination....].
I find the 1D Mark IV images quite easy to process for NR in particular. I don't think I can generalize as to the maximum usable ISO except to say that so far I've posted shots at least as high as 2000 that have been well received here. Large crops seem to retain detail better too (i.e. the detail is better in the original uncropped image) likely because pixel quality is better. As is to be expected, the quality of the detector elements, as well as their number, contributes to image quality.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments