Picking the Berries

Gallery: AvianPosted January 2, 2013268 views5 comments

Happy New Year to All. The photo was taken on December 24 when an ear-full (I learned a new word today) of Bohemian Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) descended on the Mountain Ash trees in a local park. They were joined by some American Robins and even a Black-billed Magpie. I visited the location a few days later: most of the berries were gone.

All comments are much appreciated. Thanks for looking. Roger.

Canon 7D, Sigma 150-500 at 500 mm, f/8.0, ISO 640, 1/800 sec, HH, natural light, PP in LR4. Minor crop for composition.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on January 2, 2013 at 1:36 PM

I like the falling snow from the waxwing foraging and the berry in the beak is great Roger in the larger version the head of the waxwing looks a bit soft.

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

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on January 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM

Thanks Nate. Somehow I must selected the wrong one as I was going through compare. Maybe I was looking too much at the snow rather than at the sharpness throughout. Other photo attached, sans snow unfortunately (and no large version).

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

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on January 2, 2013 at 3:44 PM

Hi Roger:

Nice image. I like the second one better since it it sharper. In both, I find the reds in the berries to be a bit over powering. I've found this to be a common problem with digital. Simple enough to fix by simply using a Hue/Sat Adjustment layer, use the Red Channel, and drop the saturation just a bit. There are other more sophisticated techniques, but I'm guessing for this image, it will solve it pretty easily.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 3, 2013 at 9:42 AM

Nice composition, Roger. The head does look a trifle soft-most evident in the catchlight, but a very nice image nonetheless. At 1/800th a bit of motion blur might have crept in.

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

Comment posted by Elizabeth Arellano on January 7, 2013 at 2:15 PM

Oh, I like this. Wonderful capture!

Registered on February 18, 2008, 35 Posts, 302 Comments