Wren

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe with everything going on. I've been very busy with work so haven't had much of a chance to post here or edit into the archives beyond an image or two each weekend, but did edit this wren from last summer recently. The wren was calling here hence the puffed up throat.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/640 f/6.3 ISO 2,000

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[David Roach]

Love the pose, singing and eating at same time. the light from the canopy top accentuating the face, the SH right where it needs to be, the perch and BG. TFS

[dankearl]

Excellent Large view.... A bit of posterization in the BG, only noticeable because of the nice large size.
Nice pose and prey. A the size posted maybe a tad more sharpening.

[Steve Kaluski]

Oh you are so lucky Alex, this is really great, especially having the the 'bug' in the mouth. I also like the pose and the head thrown back, with 'oh look at me'.:bg3:

Did you lighten the image, looks a bit of colour noise under the wing in the lights. If you pushed some of the colours then it may have affected the BKG. Is this FF, or cropped?

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Alex ... love this one .
Very clean design , cool pose and the prey in the bill ... top notch .
Not knowing the bird , so leave the colors to your interpretation .
No more sharpening needed ... IMHO
Maybe some little more NR to the BG.

Was the wren baited ? or at a feeder ? As the prey does look like a cricket ...??

TFS Andreas

[John Mack]

Great view of this wren. Nice view of that prey as well. The moss is nice. Killer background.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the overcast light. Nice pose, and the meal item is pretty cool. Good perch - too bad is was not fully mossed-over to the bottom but it is still very nice.

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I can look at the BG and do some more NR / work on the posterization.

Steve, didn't lift the image but can look at the noise. I don't think I applied much NR to the bird so it could probably use some. It's a slight crop, maybe about 85-90% of the FF.

Andreas, not baited -- this wren and its mate have nested in my folks backyard a couple years now, and they're pretty tolerant of people and take reasonably predictable paths to their nests and so I could just pick a spot (away from the nest, but in their path) and hang out last summer. They forage / hunt pretty much the whole day which helps. As long as you don't move much they're fine and I've seen them sit and preen for ~10 minutes before which is great. I've seen them come back various cricket species, huge grubs, and spiders before. Very fun birds to watch.

Dan, me too re: the moss!

[Randy Stout]

Alex:

Lovely soft light, great pose, prey item, mossy perch, all good. Maybe you can up your weekend photography workload to 3 images per weekend?

Cheers

Randy

[Ivan Sjogren]

Superb display of this beautiful bird Alex!
The pose is spot on and the prey in the beak adds a lot of interest. Great details, exposure and background too.
I don't mind that the moss doesn't cover the whole rock but you might want to darken the highlight where it is not present.
I would take some of the right and top too as there are too much dead space for me.

[Dave Harwood]

Alex, And healthy wishes to you as well. There is so much that is superior to this capture: the composition, the perfectly smooth, complimentary background, the skill of getting the wren at the height of its victory, the clarity of the bird's eye and your eye! If I have one halting response it might be that the bird is sharpened maybe a smidgen more than natural. Maybe? Regardless of that, what a trophy! Dave