by Dennis Plank
I spent some time early yesterday morning trying to photograph Pine Siskins in our flower beds. Our beds are for the birds and the bees and are a chaotic mix of species. This one is mostly California Poppies, Bachelor Buttons, and a hint of red from Clarkia Pulchella. Goldfinche4s and Siskins love the Bachelor Button seeds and bumblebees love the California Poppies. When I saw this Siskin down in the middle I took a large number of exposures, only two of which had eye contact and the head unobscured by oof foreground flowers. I really like tthe background and pose in this one. I'm not sure about the crop. In the original, the bird was dead center so I could keep the best autofocus point on it as it swayed back and forth. I didn't want to lose too much of the bg, so I went with the 4x5 format and just moved the bird a bit off center.
7Dii, 500mm f4 ISL + 1.4TC, Jobu Gimbal on RRS legs, f/6.3, 1/2000, iso 640, aperture priority, pattern metering, no compensation. Processed in LR5 & CS6. Isolated the bird on a separate layer and increased brightness, vibrance and saturation a bit. Added a little less vibrance and saturation to the bg. Cloned over a birght stem in the URC. Taken at 6:24 am on June 25th.
Comments and criticisms are appreciated.
Thanks,
Comments
8 commentsHere's a different crop that might work better.
What a great palette you've captured here, Dennis. The flaws you note are obvious, but the image overcomes some of those just by the composition and the catch light in the eye of the Siskin. Sometimes, not being ideal, can be just fine. And this is a fine image IMO. I bet I know where you can be found around 6:24 am on June 26th.
Nicely crafted.
I like the first crop better
Dennis, I really like the painterly background and the catch light in the eye of the Siskin. I prefer your original crop and might consider darkening the orange part in the lower right corner. Very beautiful shot!
Wonderful image Dennis, the BG really makes the image here: all hints of colors, structures and forms ! Composition wise I like the repost even better !
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Best, Hans
ps I answered your question about the tent pole in my post ...
Hi Dennis, a very artistic and effective image. The composition in the repost works much better for me placing the bird at about the 1/3 mark in the top right, nicely seen and processed.
Most beautiful image, Dennis ! The bird crisp and nicely isolated, the background perfect in its colour and tones and its evocative shadowy forms. Either version is fine, but maybe the repost has greater strength ( and, incidentally, more of a sense of Japanese style about it )
Wow, what a beautiful bg, Dennis. Nice catchlight in the eye. Beautiful!
Like the tighter crop,but both are beautiful pieces of work.
Keith.