Bohemian waxwing

Gallery: AvianPosted January 2, 2013173 views14 comments

Amazing (given a dreadfully wet year in the UK) to get some sun recently, I spent part of the day photographing waxwings in the local supermarket car park. This shot represents one of the best I managed, it is a fairly hefty crop (only about 25% of the original), and I have cloned out an oof bird in the background. Comments and criticism welcome, I would especially like to know if you can see any sort of halo around the front of the bird, it seems to be a feature of some monitors but not others.

As this is my first post of 2013, I wish everyone a happy new year.

David

Image taken on: Sun Dec 30, 2012 13:35
Focal length: 600 mm
Shutter speed: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO speed: 800
White-balance: Auto
Flash: No
Camera make: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model: D600
Exposure mode: Aperture priority
Exposure compensation: +1 EV
Metering mode: Center Weighted Average

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on January 2, 2013 at 9:48 AM

David, good shot. They are difficult to get at all in flight and yet the flight position is very pleasing and natural here. I cannot see any halo on my two Dell 2410 and on my iPad.

Happy New Year to you too.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on January 2, 2013 at 9:54 AM

David,
I am not seeing any halo in this amazing post for such a large crop.
The detail is very good with only a slight wing blur at the tips. The composition and pose of the Waxwing is superb.
Nicely done.

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on January 2, 2013 at 10:11 AM

Fantastic image David.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on January 2, 2013 at 11:10 AM

Really nice David. Love the flight position of the bird. Tough to get these small birds in flight. Well done.

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

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on January 2, 2013 at 1:02 PM

Fantastic shot of a small bird in flight, love the head turn and fanned tail David

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

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on January 2, 2013 at 1:52 PM

What a beautiful capture of a bird in flight. The detail is outstanding.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Lusk on January 2, 2013 at 5:36 PM

It looks like you put your break from the bad weather to very good use!

It's hard to imagine getting a better shot than this - the wing and tail positions and the light are great. A fine way to close out your 2012 shooting.

Registered on September 17, 2005, 312 Posts, 600 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on January 2, 2013 at 5:40 PM

Super flight shot.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on January 2, 2013 at 8:15 PM

Amazing effort David - great wing and tail spread and wonderfully sharp

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on January 3, 2013 at 12:14 AM

Really good, David. The detail in this is superb. Small BIF images with a 600 must be tough so this is very worthy. Hope to see one of these some day. I may see an extremely faint halo on the front. I suspect I would not have noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it. So I think you really quite good in that area. Glad to see you back posting again. I've missed you and a few others from the UK who used to post pretty regularly.

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 3, 2013 at 9:35 AM

Sweet, David. Excellent image quality. In the larger image, I think I see just a faint line under the beak and throat-not uncommon against a blue sky, but if it's there, it's no more than one pixel wide.

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

Comment posted by KC Choo on January 3, 2013 at 11:17 AM

Excellent flight shot that garners no nits from me.

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

Comment posted by Ken Archer on January 4, 2013 at 1:45 AM

I can't think of a better way to start the new year. Awesome flight shot David

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on January 4, 2013 at 7:19 AM

Fantastic frame !!!
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments