Melissa Groo
08-31-2013, 06:10 PM
Canon 1D Mark IV
500mm +1.4x
Wimberley/Gitzo
from a blind
ISO 1000
1/320 sec
f/5.6
Taken a few days ago not far from Buffalo, NY, right on Lake Ontario. My in laws discovered they had a nesting pair of RHW a couple months ago. Finding this species in New York is a pretty rare and exciting thing. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to get shots of them when they were at the nest, climbing a ladder up a nearby tree, and then resorting to strapping my camera with the 400mm on it and using a remote trigger, when they seemed unnerved by my presence (even though the tree was at least 50 feet from the nest tree). Now the juvies are out and about. I have decided these woodpeckers--at least this family--are diabolically furtive, and despite using a blind now near the feeders, they seemed to be very wary of me even when I sat in there for a long time without stirring, and wouldn't return to the feeders till I had left (though of course they were perfectly happy to all be just a few yards away from my mother in law while she has sat out on her back deck talking on the phone in the wide open, during the last couple weeks--arrggghhh). But they wanted nothing to do with me. And yes, the blind had been up for weeks. Maybe I should have had someone go in with me and then leave. Ah well. I did have about 10 minutes my first morning with this juvie as it perched on the top of this dead snag, and was lucky to capture some portraits of it before it got spooked by the sound of my camera and took off. I also managed to photograph it catching a bee before it left, which I may share here sometime.
Have other people found red-headed woodpeckers to be hard to photograph? Just wondering. I remember I had found one in Fort Myers, FL last winter, and it was very expert at keeping a tree in between me and it, couldn't get a good pic.
I cropped quite a bit to showcase this juvenile's beautiful fresh plumage. Did some darkening of the tree but don't know if it was enough. Just don't want it to look unnatural, which it might if I go darker. I think my favorite part of this is the view of the red coming in around the eye and at the base of the bill. Sharpening, NR, and I cloned out some whitish spots on the right where the sky was peeking through the foliage.
Thank you for looking and for any comments and critiques.
500mm +1.4x
Wimberley/Gitzo
from a blind
ISO 1000
1/320 sec
f/5.6
Taken a few days ago not far from Buffalo, NY, right on Lake Ontario. My in laws discovered they had a nesting pair of RHW a couple months ago. Finding this species in New York is a pretty rare and exciting thing. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to get shots of them when they were at the nest, climbing a ladder up a nearby tree, and then resorting to strapping my camera with the 400mm on it and using a remote trigger, when they seemed unnerved by my presence (even though the tree was at least 50 feet from the nest tree). Now the juvies are out and about. I have decided these woodpeckers--at least this family--are diabolically furtive, and despite using a blind now near the feeders, they seemed to be very wary of me even when I sat in there for a long time without stirring, and wouldn't return to the feeders till I had left (though of course they were perfectly happy to all be just a few yards away from my mother in law while she has sat out on her back deck talking on the phone in the wide open, during the last couple weeks--arrggghhh). But they wanted nothing to do with me. And yes, the blind had been up for weeks. Maybe I should have had someone go in with me and then leave. Ah well. I did have about 10 minutes my first morning with this juvie as it perched on the top of this dead snag, and was lucky to capture some portraits of it before it got spooked by the sound of my camera and took off. I also managed to photograph it catching a bee before it left, which I may share here sometime.
Have other people found red-headed woodpeckers to be hard to photograph? Just wondering. I remember I had found one in Fort Myers, FL last winter, and it was very expert at keeping a tree in between me and it, couldn't get a good pic.
I cropped quite a bit to showcase this juvenile's beautiful fresh plumage. Did some darkening of the tree but don't know if it was enough. Just don't want it to look unnatural, which it might if I go darker. I think my favorite part of this is the view of the red coming in around the eye and at the base of the bill. Sharpening, NR, and I cloned out some whitish spots on the right where the sky was peeking through the foliage.
Thank you for looking and for any comments and critiques.