Male Northern Cardinal.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This beautiful bird decided to hop onto a random but beautiful perch for me and was kind enough to sit still long enough for me to go to a vertical composition. The cardinals are normally wary up here, but this particular spot has a number of "tame" ones this year...good for us bird photographers!

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/5.6, ISO 1600, just about FF, darkened the pupil, removed a small but distracting OOF branch, NR to the BG.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Not a lot of light there to work with, but the trademark color came through very well. Neutral background highlights the red of the bird. Lichen adds interest to the perch.

The larger twig above provides a nice framing effect. I might prefer the thin twig not to be there, but the small size and low contrast does soften its impact.

Nice to see what you can do with the 7DII under these conditions!

Cheers

Randy

[keith mitchell]

Looks like you handled the conditions very well Dan, like the brightly coloured bird against that grey BG,I would be very happy with this.

Keith.

[Norm Dulak]

Very nice Daniel. The bird really stands out against the bkg, and as always this is technically excellent. Ideally IMO, the thin twig above and the larger branch intersecting the bird's breast wouldn't be there, but those are very minor things.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely Cardinal, Daniel. Nice soft colors, the light was kind to you. Here in Florida the red will clip in a heartbeat. Thank you for sharing.

[dennis greenwood]

Good bird photography Daniel,wouldnt expect anything else

[Bill Dix]

Handsome shot of this cooperative Cardinal. Great pose, nice woodsy background. I particularly like the touch of yellow lichen. The thin twig a mild but not serious distraction.

[christopher galeski]

Nice capture Daniel,like the pose and BG,licheon on the perch a nice adition.TFS.

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image. Superb colors on Cardinal. Very nice vertical composition.

Regards,
Satish.