Collared Redstart

[Bill Holsten]

Photographed last month at Savegre Lodge in Costa Rica on a workshop with Greg Basco and Doug Brown. This is a very energetic bird that kept returning to this same perch, from which it would hawk insects. There were a half dozen photographers competing for very limited deck space. Fortunately, I got there first so was in front.

EOS 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4, 1/200", f/8, ISO 800, fill flash, tripod

Critique and comments welcome.

[MohsenVahedipour]

What a cute bird Bill. Excellent perch, pose & IQ. TFS

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely bird and amazing details on the bird
The perch is so nice and so is the BG, THere is a red dot in the bg, even thought its lovely color takes my attention off the birds face
over all a wonderfully executed image

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful and colorful image.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Very nicely captured Bill! Great head angle, spot on focus, and nice perch.

The colors are a bit too saturated for my taste (although I've never seen one in real life, so this may well be their natural color). I agree with Vishal regarding the red blob in the bg.

Miguel

[jack williamson]

Brilliantly colored bird and complimentary BG. I would drop the saturation by a couple of points.

[Bill Holsten]

I agree with the saturation issue. Here is a repost with saturation dropped 5 points and lightness dropped 1 point in PS. With respect to the "red blob" (actually an OOF flower), I like it and I spent quite sometime trying to get it into the frame in a pleasing way. I like the added color interest. I think there is some leeway here for taste/style.

[Bill Dix]

These are adorable little birds, and brightly colored, although I do agree that the repost is an improvement. On first look I thought the red blob was a distraction, but it does make the image a bit different and sometimes that's a good thing. I may be seeing a little bit of flash-eye.

I remember this little guy (or his cousin) from my trip two years ago. Except that mine kept coming in and landing on the bracket of one of the light fixtures on the porch. I never could get him on a natural perch. In the end, I went out and photographed some natural perches on the grounds, and resorted to photoshopping him onto one of those. A poor substitute to getting him on a natural perch in the first place as you have here. Well done.

[PhilCook]

Cute as !.....nice pose and nice curved perch, sorry but I too find the red blob a bit colorful, a bit distracting

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Bill. I remember these little guys well - and how crowded that deck was. You had a prime spot! Getting a pleasing background was a real challenge. The bird is giving you a nice pose and the background turned out rather well. The repost is an improvement. The darker parts of the bird look a bit noisy to my eye - you might try a little more nr to see if you like that better. If this was mine, I'd probably remove the flash-generated catchlight as you already have a nice natural highlight there. Overall, this is nicely done!

[nick clayton]

Incredible colours on this image Bill.