Young Sparrow with its lunch

[Peter Seidel]

A group of young sparrows kept jumping in and out of a large bush as they were hunting for insects. Occasionally they would perch for more than a split second and give me some opportunities.

Comments welcome

Pete

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5444/8803828802_a3e78665b5_c.jpg

Nikon D300s, Nikon 300mm (f/4) with Nikon 1.4x TC. Monopod.
F/6.3, 1/320 sec., ISO 800, exposure bias +0.3

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Peter, nice catch. I liked the composition and the sparrow's head turn. Light was a bit too harsh creating lots of distracting shadows. In processing, you can try reducing the contrast a bit. Hope you get the opportunity again in soft light.

[gail bisson]

Hi Peter,
The first thing I thought of when I saw this was that you need more room on the right as the sparrow is looking to the right. However, the RHS probably has lots of busy foliage so the best thing to do would have been to wait for the bird to look to its right (our left).
If you have photoshop, I would use the shadow and highlights feature and try to brighten up the shadowed areas.
I really like all the bugs in the mouth and the clear view of the feet.
You can post the image larger at 1200 pixels by 900 pixels ( new unofficial guidelines). it helps my old eyes to see the image better!
gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Tough harsh light for sure, and that is the main concern here. I normally do not like to photograph birds when the sun is so strong...I do realize sometimes we need go out whenever we can especially if we lack the time otherwise. In this case you can either find shaded spots, or use fill-flash to lessen the shadows. I do like the pose, sharpness, bill full of snacks. It must have been fun to observe the young ones!!

[Peter Seidel]

Kaustubh,

Thank you for the comments. I agree, the lighting was definitely harsh. I will repost based on your comments (and Gail's and Daniel's). I'm not sure the shadows can be completely dealt with, but the overall presentation can be improved. I'll re-post soon.

Pete


Peter, nice catch. I liked the composition and the sparrow's head turn. Light was a bit too harsh creating lots of distracting shadows. In processing, you can try reducing the contrast a bit. Hope you get the opportunity again in soft light.

[Peter Seidel]

Thank you Kaustubh, Gail, and Daniel for comments. I've re-posted here. Slightly different crop. The shadows were definitely the main issue here. Gail - you're correct, everything to the left of the bird (to our right) is just more of that thick foliage. I also posted a bit bigger - if that's too much let me know. In LR and NIK (viveza) I brought up the shadows and tried to lessen the contrast a bit. My inclination is that I probably need a much tighter crop to really make this work.

Pete

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3808/8868342651_7c0e4308e5_h.jpg