Eastern Kingbird

[Bill Dix]

Last Sunday Geoffrey and I went back to the grasslands to have another go at the Clay-colored Sparrow, and met Isaac whom it was nice to meet finally in person. The sparrow didn't cooperate with close-up views, but several Eastern Kingbirds expressed interest in our audio. They were tough to catch in flight. The best I managed was this take-off shot, and I had to resort to some photoshoppery to separate him from a distracting background.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 1250, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual.

[Isaac Grant]

That came better than anything that I got Bill. The bird looks really good and I think you did great with your photoshppery! Pity that the bird didn't clear the vertical stick and that the other stick is intersecting the tail. All of mine were deletes. Where was the bird when you took this? And it was a pleasure to meet you and Jeff and your lovely wife as well. Lets make sure we do it again soon.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Isaac. He was perched on this twig, which was part of a bush right in front of a rather distracting tree. I did get a couple of frames as he cleared the twig, but the wing positions were unattractive, and I couldn't pan fast enough to get more than that.

[Tim Foltz]

Bill, Really nice wing position, details, BG HA and catchlight, I think this one's worth a bit of PS...
here's a quickie, I hope you don't mind.

-Tim

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Very nice take-off capture, Bill. Beautiful afternoon light, great wing position and fanned tail. Exceptionally fine detail.

Geoffrey




http://http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, well timed to capture the moment of take off, with the feet just leaving the perch. I really like the outspread wings, and fanned tail. I like what Tim has done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic pose and great light! I actually do not mind any of the branch parts. Whatever you did in photoshop was well done as I can not see any sign of image manipulation

[David Salem]

Great looking frame Bill!! Love this kind of shot and it's what I strive for when I go out shooting birds. A Great pose with action portrayed, smooth BG, awesome details and an open beak. Besides the branches in the way, this one is deluxe.
Funny, I didn't look down the page and see Tim's re-post when I grabbed the image and did a quickie to remove the branches also. Here is my rendition. Well done

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for commenting. Particular thanks to Tim and Dave for taking the time to edit. I hadn't been too concerned with the twigs, but I liked the look that both of you achieved. Following your lead, here's my repost -- pretty similar to what Dave did, but without a shadow on the birds's left wing from a stick that was no longer there.