Red-winged Blackbird

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Captured image of this RWBL perched on a milkweed plant yesterday afternoon at a local wildlife preserve. I like that he's not paying attention to me, but doing what he does all day long. C&C welcome.

D500, Nikon 500mm f4/G + 1.4 TC, 1/3200s, f6.3, ISO 3200, Gitzo, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Geoffrey




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[Alex Becker]

Really nice perch and BG -- the bird really pops. To me, I do wish for a better HA, but I do like the classic blackbird calling pose. To me the reds look just a little over saturation. TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty cool! I personally like the reds here, with some feather details within - it can be easy to can a solid "enamel" look to those reds but you did well IMO. I agree a better head angle would have strengthened the image.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Alex and Daniel. The red on the shoulders of this species is unique. I too like the reds shown with the feathers raised revealing the lighter reds, almost orange beneath.

Geoffrey




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[Tomasz Zawadzki]

I like everything about it except for the HA.

[Daniel Grossi]

Great Geoffrey! It's shots like this that help me get over the fear of anything over ISO-800 with my D500. Solid BG and I love the spread of his wings. Needless to say the HA is not what we're all looking for, but it barely detracts from liking this shot. I'm beginning to think it's impossible to accurately represent the colors of this bird's red wing, but I'm pretty confident in saying you're one of the closest I've seen come to it. No matter how well of an exposure I get, I'm always less than happy with the red wing portion. Too bad that leaf is covering his feet - but what can you do. Regarding what I said about the ISO in the beginning... you could have backed off of it over a full stop if not a little more to save a little noise and detail considering your shutter speed. Like many of us, I have a ton of these RWBB shots and have found that 1/1600 is plenty to stop this singing pose provided you time it right.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Tomasz and Daniel. Daniel I had the shutter speed set for flight captures, plus I was working with light defused by clouds. I agree I could have backed off on the ss and ISO for this image. I'm also glad my image has relieved you of the concern of going higher than ISO 800 with the D500.

Geoffrey




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[Daniel Grossi]

Pretty cool! I personally like the reds here, with some feather details within - it can be easy to can a solid "enamel" look to those reds but you did well IMO. I agree a better head angle would have strengthened the image.

Good point on the red feather detail Daniel - it's a problem I often have when photographing RWBBs.

[Bill Dix]

Great calling pose, nicely exposed for blacks and reds. Lovely perch and grassland bg. I particularly like the separation of the near wing feathers, almost like a partially open Venetian blind. I can appreciate that his attentions were elsewhere, but a bit of head turn would have put it over the top.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great calling pose, nicely exposed for blacks and reds. Lovely perch and grassland bg. I particularly like the separation of the near wing feathers, almost like a partially open Venetian blind. I can appreciate that his attentions were elsewhere, but a bit of head turn would have put it over the top.

Thanks Bill. Yes, I also thought the separation of near wing feathers was pretty cool.

Geoffrey




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