Spring Cleaning

Gallery: AvianPosted April 19, 201586 views6 comments

A quick change of location here. I was at Wolf Haven International, which is only a few miles from my house this last Wednesday and saw a lovely snag in their small park. At the time, it had a Pileated Woodpecker busy on it, so I went back on Friday morning to try to get some shots. No pileated's showed up, but this Chestnut-backed Chickadee was busy with its spring cleaning. It should provide me with some more opportunities as spring progresses.

7DDii, 500mm f4 ISL + 1.4TC, Jobu Gimbal on RRS legs, f/7.1, 1/640, iso 400, apreture priority, center weighted average metering with -2/3 stop compensation to keep from blowing out the white cheek patches. I should have had quite a bit higher iso to let me get both more shutter speed (I missed some interesting poses due to motion blur) and more dof. I had to do some reconstruction of the snag on the left because it became too oof on that side, so I stole some from the right and made a composite. Processed in LR5 & CS6. Cropped to 15MP, mostly from the top and right. Taken on April 17th at 10:08 am.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Thanks,

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on April 19, 2015 at 1:59 PM

Nice background for this bird - all matching colors. Pleasant image and looking forward to what's yet to come enlightened , Cheers, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on April 19, 2015 at 8:09 PM

A really nice look at this very neat bird Dennis. You have terrific detail throughout the entire image. devil

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on April 19, 2015 at 10:54 PM

Great color, composition and detail. The only nit I have is the birds head seems to disappear a bit into the dark wood.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Morris on April 19, 2015 at 11:00 PM

Great capture Dennis. I love the detail and the story. I also appreciate the amount of image data you provide. It helps me as a beginner to see more clearly what you're doing and maybe some of the things you wished you had done.

Registered on January 23, 2015, 38 Posts, 104 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on April 20, 2015 at 10:24 PM

Very cool behavior Dennis. I keep going back and forth about the comp...wondering how it might look with a bit more cropped off the right side? But I think the comp chosen still might look best. My only other nit is the head blends in a bit with the tree bark. I might selectively bring up the blacks and/or the shadows on the bird to create some separation.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on April 21, 2015 at 7:05 AM

Sweet photo of this busy little chickadee Dennis, I really like the texture of the bark, it adds interest to photo. Looking forward to seeing more.

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