Golden-Crowned Kinglet

[Enrique Patino]

I played audio of several species while having BBQ at a cabin near the ocean with wife and friends one afternoon earlier this year. This was the second or third species I tried and bang! This bird was right there. So I decided to put the audio away and plan to photograph this species next day.

This was photographed just before 9 AM April 29, 2013. Spend a few minutes with this individual that day. It was a first one for me. I was handholding and had to keep the SS high enough... so I went full open with the 500mm. I got a few frames. It was interesing to see the interaction between the few of indivisuals that showed up in the 10-15 minutes this session lasted. I could have not gotten this image w/o audio. This was the cleanest in terms of cloning work. No cloning done

134523

7D, 500mm @ F/4, 1/500, ISO 800. ~80% FF, HH, audio

comments welcome

[keith mitchell]

Enrique you have lost a bit of detail in the wing tips and tail but the front end of the bird more than makes up for it, head ,eye ,and lovely colours and composition all excellent IMO like it a lot.

Keith.:S3:

[Grace Scalzo]

Getting one of these tiny birds with a raised crest is always a bonus. I think that a more simple perch would enable the eye to totally rest on the bird and not be pulled toward the upper right corner of the frame.

[Andre Pretorius]

The detail on this is amazing!

Just imagine the image @ 6,3! (I do not know how well the 7D can handle noise?)

Exposure well handled.

What is that whitish OOF area behind the little one?

[gail bisson]

I really like the raised crest and the great clean BG.
I see a bit of a magenta cast in the image which is easy to fix.
I don't know how you feel about cloning but I would clone out the lower and/or upper OOF branch which would help focus the eye on the bird,
Gail

[Enrique Patino]

Gail, thanks for pointing out the magenta cast... used a saturation layer and desaturated using the magenta slider... is that the best way? did it help?

134537

Andre, I don't know what the BG is... but that reminds me that I did use the clone stamp tool at low opacity to tone it down a bit...

I could clone out the branches, but... I'll try to get a better one next time. I may post another one later where I did some cloning work

thanks for your comments

[gail bisson]

The magenta cast is gone in your repost and it looks fine now.
I just go to color balance ( adjustment layer) and slide the slider down 1 or 2 points. Nothing fancy,
Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Enrique, super pose from the little guy looking down the perch. Interesting mixture of colours on this species, especially the crest. I noticed the magenta cast before reading Gail's comment, but you have sorted that nicely in your repost. Well done.

[Enrique Patino]

thank you for all your comments and suggestions..

[Satish Ranadive]

Superb image of beautiful bird with open beak, very nice colors, details, BG and composition.
Love the gold crest with with touch of red.

Regards,
Satish.