Tree Creeper

I spotted this busy little male nest-building last spring, but the only place I could find to get shots without disturbing his flight path was to stand in the river and shoot towards a bright sky background to one side of his chosen tree. He did oblige occasionally by coming to the side with the preferred background, but since it was raining at the time the light was poor – hence the high ISO. The throat is slightly blown unfortunately, but like most of my shots it brings back a memory. Being with him for about 4 hours was a joy.

All C&C welcome.

Nikon D3 with Nikon 200-400/F4 with 1.4x T/Converter. 1/250 sec at F5.6, ISO 2000, EV +0.3. Cropped from Landscape to Portrait.

Hi Really nice picture, i know how hard these guys are to capture. my only nit would be to clone out the single rain line top right.


Mark.G

Hi Mike nice capture and like you say the whites are blown. Full marks for standing in the river.

Hi Mike, shame about the exposure but nonetheless it is good to get the record shots as suggested.

Brett

Quite often a tricky bird to get as they always seem to be on the wrong side of the tree trunk. Good job on getting something at least. Just a bit over-exposed on the whites which is a shame.

A lovely bird but unfortunately all the shots I have of them the whites are blown. They are difficult little beggars to expose.

Hard bird to see let alone photograph Mike,you've done really well like the composition also,-0.3 next time

It must have been a fun session but I bet you got cold feet standing in the water for hours. I find that I only ever see these by chance and usually they're gone before I can get decent pics. You've composed this very nicely and done well in very tricky conditions.

Tim