High-key Cedar Waxwing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

A chance encounter as I spotted this Cedar Waxwing posing on a longer branch while driving along a country road. It gave me time to stop, lower my window and stick out the lens, back up into position, and grab a few frames before it went back down inside the dense bush. It was a bit large in the frame I added some canvas above and left in post to loosen the original vertical composition - nice to have an easy all-white BG to work with!

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, natural light, handheld, a couple of leaves cloned out from the right edge, deepened the blacks (the raw file was washed out for this high-key image, as it should when ETTR), darkened the pupil. Oh, and no need for NR to the BG:t3.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely image and bird. Nice problem to have: subject too big in the frame. Love the perch and the bird's position on it.

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[Robert Kimbrell]

An attractive image Daniel. Excellent head and body position. love the soft colors on the belly.

[Glennie Passier]

Lovely image Dan. I especially like the composition with the diagonal branch. A beautiful, delicate image. The high key look has worked a treat. The soft yellow belly compliments the new leaves at the end of the branch.

Serendipidious fate! How wonderful!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

A beauty, and the ultra high key effect works well with the naturally soft feel of the waxwing.

I couldn't resist trying a variation on this, to give the bird just a bit more definition against the sky. I found that a multiply blend layer set at around 15-20% gave a little more definition to the bird and foliage against the white sky. Purely personal taste.

Well seen and captured. I have had no luck with our occ. waxwings. Always deep in the woods.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot Dan well constructed. I like as it is but Randy's suggestion is rather effective too.

[Glenn Conlan]

Well done Daniel this is a calendar shot for sure, the high key sets off this striking bird.