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Dignified Chickadee
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Dignified Chickadee

by Wayne Jones

Gallery: AvianPosted March 4, 2015163 views4 comments
Most people enjoy Black-capped Chickadees because they are so tame, cute and cheerful. However, the somber lighting and pose in this shot brings to my mind a more serious portrait pose. Of course, a portrait would not have out-of-focus twigs in the foreground -- especially the one cutting across the tail. Is that a deal-killer? Any other advice is appreciated, too.

Canon 7D Mark II; 100-400mm.
1/160 sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 1250
(shot using an Acratech GP ballhead in "gimbal" mode)

P.S. I just noticed that there is a streaked snowflake in this shot. There were two or three others that I cloned out because there were not enough of them to give it that "snowing" feeling. If I revisit this image, I'll clone out the one I missed.

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by John Neukirch on March 4, 2015 at 3:19 PM
Wow, the bird is tack sharp Wayne. It is unfortunate that there wasn't a little more separation with the OOF branches. I almost find the white OOF branch coming up behind the tail more distracting. Why won't they ever just pose out in the open for the camera? :toast:
Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments
Comment posted by Steve Thompson on March 4, 2015 at 6:47 PM
The intersecting branch is unfortunate but this is still a solid shot Wayne. The sharpness in the Chickadee is amazing. I can't find the snowflake... :smile:
Registered on August 7, 2014, 125 Posts, 2319 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Hansen on March 4, 2015 at 11:50 PM
Beautiful and great detail on the bird. Nice light as well. The mess of out of focus branches are a distraction, but cloning them out would be a lot of work! You might be able to crop out the bottom ones without getting too close to the bird's tail. I wonder if you could coax a little more detail from the blacks on the head and chin? Overall, very nice, especially from a master landscape man!
Registered on May 5, 2011, 161 Posts, 908 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on March 7, 2015 at 11:36 AM
Hi Wayne,

Casting twigs aside, that's one sharp chickadee. I like the details of the eye and beak. You might be able to darken the diagonal light colored twig in the Bg, but the strong showing of the bird almost makes this edit unnecessary. :toast: ....................Jim
Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments