Great Spotted woodpecker

One from my feeding station probably not everybody's cup of tea but I quiet like it myself.

Phillip.

Ps there is no noise reduction actually applied to the image the background has been selected and not sharpened whereas the bird and the branch it is on has been sharpened

D300 sigma 500f4.5 1/60@f5.6 iso1600

PP in Capture NX & CS2.

vey nice, you liking the D300 then????

Works for me!
If you want to sort the D300 images faster than NX will, Faststone will already read the NEF's. Have a look at www.fastone.org.

Ian

Works for me also Phillip..........mainly because its an 'in yer face' framing. Not sure if it would work effectively if smaller in the frame though

Hope to give you a purple sandpiper update/numbers etc fairly soon, as the weather looks like shaping up next week {hopefully}.

Alan

Looks good from here Phillip

I'll tell you what would be interesting - to see a 100% crop of the area containing the eye, beak and some BG from the raw image tiff Phillip, any chance?

Great shot. Nice to see some great results from the D300 (and photographer of course).
For a few weeks ago I heard that are no woodpeckers in the UK at all. I find that very hard to believe. Can you tell me if there are just a few or a lot of woodpeckers in England? And what kind?
Thanks,

Edwin Kats

There are lots of GSWs in Cheshire Edwin, either that or I'm getting them mixed up with starlings

There's one or two Greens here too but you don't see them anywhere near as often as you hear them

Hi Andy yes 100% crop straight from the raw file with no noise reduction and no sharpening whatsoever I made sure I switched it off in capture.

Phillip.

Hi Edwin you get three species of woodpecker in the UK, greater spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, which is much rarer and of course green woodpecker, which can be common in certain areas as their favourite food is ants, greater spotted woodpeckers are very common throughout the UK.

Phillip.

Thats interesting Phillip,

How would that 100% crop compare to your D2x at the same iso rating {NR off also}..........two stops maybe

Alan

Hi Alan at least two stops my particular d2x is quite good as well noise wise at the higher ISO.

Phillip.

That's pretty impressive, noise-free capture in my book. I am beginning to wonder if I bought into the wrong company's products now. Nice picture as well.

Thanks for the answers So you don't have the Black woodpecker. They are not rare overhere but the are rarely seen. Now back to the photo again...

Edwin Kats

Nice capture Philiph and some interesting facts with the D300.
No doubt your well pleased with the results. Look forward to seeing some more.

Major.

Nice photo. Reminds me a little of the Downy Woodpeckers in my backyard. Thanks for sharing--this is my first exposure to a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Laurie

Nice to see a different take on GSW. Unfortunatly they're one of those species that are almost always doing the same thing (like Nuthatches!) so everybodys shots end up looking the same!
Edwin, all 3 species of woodpecker are very common in England. The Lesser-spotted is just very small and very hard to see (and even harder to photograph!) but if you know what its call sounds like you'll easily find them in most deciduous woodlands just before the leaves are fully open in the spring and you can still see into the canopy.
Cheers,
Dave

Doesn't quite work for me, perhaps because there appears no room for virtual tail etc... but certainly a different take so well done.

I am impressed with the quality of the D300 at that iso level.
Nice, and slightly unusual shot of the GSW

Like the idea here Philip - for me a slight crop to remove the b/g in the bottom l/h corner would give the shot a greater sense of intimacy and inpact.

Fingers crossed I'll be in touch in next day or so.

Mark

Great capture Phillip
John
Aberdeen

Nice one Phil



Danny