Nuthatch

[Diane Miller]

I presume this is a White-breasted Nuthatch -- shot in northern CA a few days ago.

Canon 5D Mk III, 600mm II with 25mm extension tube for slightly closer focus. Big Gitzo with Wimberley II. ISO 1600, f/13, 1/250 sec. That SS was thin ice for this twitchy subject, but I was after as much DOF as I could get due to the amount of magnification. Cropped to 50% of original frame. Basic LR adjustments only on this one. Exported from LR then a slight further sharpening with Smart Sharpen in PS.

[keith mitchell]

Diane sharp from beak to tail and beautifully exposed, even the feet look excellent.

Keith.

[Ron E Racine]

Diane, nice pose and framing. At f/13 the details and DOF are great for a close-range shot like this. The one large bright lichen in the back does seem to drawing my eye to it, maybe darkening it a little might help.

Ron

[Diane Miller]

I agree, Ron. I should have done my usual with Nik Viveza on this one. It's great for darkening OOF areas.

[Arthur Morris]

Quite beautiful and sharp. A crop from the bottom to 3X2 would work for me. And maybe pull the curve down a bit on the whole thing.... Love the angled down pose and the BKGR.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and sharpness.

[Randall Farhy]

Nice capture-details here are well seen. This is can be an issue with these guys, as they often present a pose that makes getting both the bill and neck feathers acceptably sharp when locking on the eye.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose, background and details. Maybe more room around.

[Bryan Munn]

Great shot Diane! I don't have any real suggestions that I think would make it better. I like seeing it on a perch like that...the typical nuthatch shot has them pointing either up or down on the side of a tree. Nice to see something different.

I have a pair of these birds apparently staking out one of the nest boxes behind my house. I have them coming to a suet feeder, but have not yet tried to photograph them. They sure are twitchy little things....even when eating they never really stop moving.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! I think a little off the bottom is a good idea for this crop. And I do have a little more room all around -- will look at a looser crop, too.

Seeing it here, it does look a little overexposed -- easy to fix in the Raw converter. It came out with a cool cast in the somewhat cloudy light -- also easy to fix.

[Randall Farhy]

Bryan-try hanging a perch at a level above and leading to the suet feeder or a small pile of sunflower seeds-these guys will often scamper along the branch and then go inverted as they approach the food. Pre-focus and anticipate their arrival because as you noted-they hardly ever sit still. I'll have to dig out an example.