Bushtit (the male)

[Geoff Shapiro]

Here's a photo taken last June of a male bushtit. Anyone familiar with these little guys knows that they travel in flocks. In my experience they don't seem to hang out in any one spot for very long as the entire flock might show up where you are located and be gone 10 seconds later.


20D, 300/4 + 1.4x, ISO 400, 1/320 @ f5.6

http://gshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/_mg_070615_7826.jpg

[Maxis Gamez]

Hello Geoff,

The image looks heavy with sharpening, creating unnecessary contrast. The dead flower is a huge distraction in the composition.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is a cute little bird. I think the lighting is quite good, but the perch is not ideal. It also looks a tad oversharpened on my monitor. Maybe it could be a more off center as well. But still, you were lucky to get this having said what you had said.

[Jim Poor]

The feathers on this guy look way over sharpened. I'd be tempted also to darken and blur the BG just a bit as I find it a bit overwhelming and I'm not the type that loves "bird on a stick shots" with completely oof BGs.

[Geoff Shapiro]

Ok, after viewing this on my laptop's lcd display I agree that it does indeed look like I applied to much sharpening. It didn't appear that excessive on my desktop's crt. I've had that happen before where I sharpen on a crt and then have it look crappy on good lcd displays.

It's an interesting comment about the past its prime flower. I sort of felt that there was a parallel there between the dried out flower and the small, non-descript bushtit looking somewhat disheveled...