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WC 503 Bird and Flower

Gallery: Weekly ChallengePosted October 6, 201159 views7 comments

Because I like shooting both avian and flora, I thought I better show an image with both. The red-winged blackbird is perched in great angelica. It's a biennial that shoots up to seven feet tall by late spring of its second year. That great height provided the clear green background of a spring green prairie -- Lake in the Hills Fen.

Nikon D2x; Nikkor 300mm f2.8 + 2x; ISO 200, 1/80 @ f/5.6; tripod
Slight crop off bottom-left for composition.

Comments and criticisms always welcome.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on October 6, 2011 at 5:13 PM

Hard to tell at this size, but the bird looks a tad over sharpened.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on October 6, 2011 at 9:45 PM

Good looking image David. I particularly like the composition. I might add a touch of contrast.

Sharpness looks fine on my MacBook Pro 17. Having literally shot hundreds of these I appreciate how hard it is to get any detail out of that blackness.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by RL Potts on October 7, 2011 at 1:18 AM

I like this one a lot. The color scheme is amazing. A veiled subject often works out well, as we can see here.

Registered on November 24, 2003, 188 Posts, 985 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on October 7, 2011 at 6:22 AM

I like the combo image, especially the variation in the focus of the great angelica and the green prairie BG for the black bird.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Conway on October 7, 2011 at 11:34 AM

I like this too. Both flower and RWB look good. Agree with Pat that getting detail in the blacks is really tough with these guys.

Peter

Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on October 7, 2011 at 11:38 PM

Nice, David. I like the stark contrast of the dark bird against the soft flower and bg.

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

Comment posted by Varina Patel on October 10, 2011 at 3:00 PM

He really stands out with such dark coloring against that lovely, pale green background. I love the fading sharpness, too. Beautiful!

Registered on August 22, 2008, 45 Posts, 1578 Comments