Lady Scarlet

Gallery: AvianPosted September 27, 2011139 views11 comments

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Aperture Priority @ f/8 (1/125 sec), -1/3 EV, ISO 800, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, Cropped to About 30% of Full Frame

Aside from the odd shot for my own reference purposes, I seldom bother taking photos of female Sunbirds, as more often than not the male's colours are far more captivating and usually where the female feeds the male won't be far behind, if he's not there already ;^)

This female Scarlet-Throated Sunbird may not be nearly as striking as her male counterpart, yet the picture as a whole really appeals to me. To be honest, for the poor lighting I had, and the fact that I'd decided to drop my ISO (good as the 7D is, nine times out of 10 I find it useless to go above ISO 800) leaving me with a shutter speed of only 1/125, I'm amazed I was able to recover as much detail as I was in post-processing.

Critique and comments always welcome.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on September 27, 2011 at 7:08 AM

I actually prefer the understated females to the gaudy males in many cases. Everybody takes images of the males, so images of females are rarer. I like the subtle beauty of many of the female bird species I have seen. The larger version of this is super Ashley. The detail is very good considering the crop. That tells me this was tack sharp in camera. Love the overall comp, colors and the bird's position. A really great shot IMO.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on September 27, 2011 at 7:48 AM

The detail is excellent Ashely. I can understand your preference for the male sunbirds, however this is an excellent pose she gave you and a really nice image.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on September 27, 2011 at 8:15 AM

First-class in every way, Ashley! I, too, try to get the females of the species as often as I can.

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on September 27, 2011 at 9:50 AM

Very nice, Ashley. Personally, I'm fond of the subtle tones of the female birds. This works very well. If it were mine, and I had some idle time, I might clone out the oof branches in the ulc, but it still works with them there.

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

Comment posted by Ron Huff on September 27, 2011 at 12:26 PM

Beautiful shot Ashley!

Ron Huff

Registered on August 31, 2010, 69 Posts, 440 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on September 27, 2011 at 12:34 PM

Wonderful display of colors with the flowers and background. I like the head turn with the eye contact and being able to see how long the beak is. Very nice detail on the larger version for 30% of full frame, nice job in getting this.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on September 27, 2011 at 2:47 PM

Very nice Ashley. Nice pose, excellent detail, and pleasing colors. The only change I would make, if it were mine, would be to darken slightly the 2 green areas in the LRC. They seem to pull my eyes there. Maybe its just my personal preference. Nice shot nevertheless.

Peter

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on September 27, 2011 at 3:54 PM

Good detail in the sunbirds feathers. I like the pose and the composition you have captured. The red of the flower IMHO brings your attention right to the bird. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on September 27, 2011 at 5:42 PM

Beautiful pose and I love the red flower.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on September 28, 2011 at 9:42 AM

Many thanks for your kind word, thoughts, comments, and suggestions Ron, Ray, KC, Dennis, Ron, Jim, Peter, John, and Sally, much appreciated :^)

One correction I should make: I wrote above, "Cropped to About 30% of Full Frame", when in fact I should have written, "Cropped About 30% From Full Frame" i.e. what you see here is 70% of the full frame, not just 30%, sorry about that ;^)

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on October 1, 2011 at 6:18 PM

Magnificent, Ashby. I love the way the lines in the photo lead you through it.

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