Posted by Richard Lee on March 5, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Just after sunrise about two weeks ago a few hundred Robins and even more Cedar Waxwings, decended on the backyard and stripped thousands of yupon, common privet, and holly berries from the bushes. They put on quite a show and had stripped all the berries in about 20 minutes. This grately upset my resident Mockingbird who felt all the berries were his.
Yesterday, the Cedar Waxwing clean-up crew of about 30 birds arrived and quickly removed any previously missed berries.
Canon 40D, 600mm lens, fill flash - slight PS/CS4 edit to correct "red-eye or "blue-eye" as was the case.
Posted by drew resnik on March 5, 2010 at 10:14 AM
oooh! that is a pretty shot!
Posted by Daniel Loomis on March 5, 2010 at 10:36 AM
Nice action shot. Lovely colors. Flash brought out the colors rather nicely and was necessary for the early hour. However, it is obvious that flash was used in the shot, especially in the reflections off the waxy leaves. When using flash fill in daylight, I usually start at -1 stop for the flash and often end up using -2 stops. I want just enough to bring out the colors and reduce shadows, but still appear like it was shot in natural light.
Do you have a flash extension to get the flash unit a little farther away from the focal plane of the lens? I have a Wimberly F1 extension that works nicely in such close shots. Mine clips to the mounting plate. It gets rid of the moon eye look on close-in shots. Of course, the farther away the bird, the less effective the extension becomes because of convergence. Of course, the flash extension is a real pain when shooting from a car window!
Posted by Richard Lee on March 8, 2010 at 10:23 AM
Thanks to all for the nice comments and suggestions!
Daniel: I use a "Better Beamer" flash extender , but it is mounted on camera and I am working on the off axis mount. This shot used a -1 flash compensation.
Larry: I actually cropped this image as a portrait and you are right it is a nicer presentation.
Discussion
6 repliesYesterday, the Cedar Waxwing clean-up crew of about 30 birds arrived and quickly removed any previously missed berries.
Canon 40D, 600mm lens, fill flash - slight PS/CS4 edit to correct "red-eye or "blue-eye" as was the case.
Do you have a flash extension to get the flash unit a little farther away from the focal plane of the lens? I have a Wimberly F1 extension that works nicely in such close shots. Mine clips to the mounting plate. It gets rid of the moon eye look on close-in shots. Of course, the farther away the bird, the less effective the extension becomes because of convergence. Of course, the flash extension is a real pain when shooting from a car window!
Wonder about cropping some off the right side??
the fisch
Daniel: I use a "Better Beamer" flash extender , but it is mounted on camera and I am working on the off axis mount. This shot used a -1 flash compensation.
Larry: I actually cropped this image as a portrait and you are right it is a nicer presentation.
Many thanks,
Dick