Eastern Spinebill

[Leo Berzins]

An Eastern Spinebill on a callistemon at the Booderee Botanic Gardens in south-east Australia. Eastern Spinebills are small, active honeyeaters.

Canon 1Dx, 500f/4L IS II + 1.4x, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 6400, manual exposure, monopod
pseudo full frame (crop from LHS with matching canvas extension on RHS), NeatImage noise reduction

[keith mitchell]

Leo those botanical gardens you have there do produce some great birds, really like the composition on this with the flower adding some more interest, and a cracking looking bird, great piece of work.

Keith.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Leo, What a beautiful elegant bird. Love the image design. The bird only might benefit from some more pop; a bit of NIK Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor might do the trick. I would love to have seen the rest of the leaf cluster....

[Kaido Rummel]

Great work! I love the pose and the background, although the photo would be even greater if all the leaves would have fitted in (in the foreground). But the latter is a minor problem, it is still a very good photo.

[Leo Berzins]

Hey Leo, What a beautiful elegant bird. Love the image design. The bird only might benefit from some more pop; a bit of NIK Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor might do the trick. I would love to have seen the rest of the leaf cluster....
Thanks Artie.
I should have mentioned that I already ran NIK Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast on the bird as recommended in Digital Basics (http://www.birdsasart.com/digitalbasics.htm) by some esteemed photographer whose name escapes me at present. And yes, I would have loved to have the rest of the leaf cluster too. :S3:

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Leo, nicely framed between the parts of leaves, and I do like the proud pose. Lovely clean BG. Another vote for wishing the leaves werent cut off below. :w3

[Karl Egressy]

Great looking bird and nice composition, Leo.

[Tim Harding]

Very nice image. Great IQ.

That unnamed esteemed photographer has techniques for replacing cut-off feather tips in his tome that you could use on the leaf cluster.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Guys :). In this case, much better to simply point the lens up a bit and do it in the field. Saves a ton of hard work. In ABP II that same esteemed dude writes, "If an object is worth including in the frame it is best to include the whole thing in the frame with a small border :). Plus, I love the 3X2 presentation here and would not want to destroy it. Last advice: a bit lighter on the face :)

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Also love this one!
Very nice bird, pose and I also with to see the whole leaf cluster, other than that this is an outstanding image. TFS.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful perch and nice composition.