Call of the Wild

[Brian Sump]

191254

Lazuli Bunting shown here on what I believe is Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany. This foliage really gets fun in the fall when it sprouts feathery, spiral blooms.

R5
840mm
Handheld
ISO 2500
1.800
f5.6

LR and PS, DN. Audio played. One tiny cotton/web evicted just to the left of the beak, otherwise as captured. Cropped for presentation.

[dankearl]

Great subject and a nice classic comp.. Bird looks OK, details are so so for you.
Dont take this wrong like you can do.. It is a top notch photo. I just think that the white breast feathers and the feathers in general don"t have great sharpness or detail like most of yours.

[kevin Hice]

You are killing it Brian hard to pick apart. Beautiful on all accounts. I could see a different crop off the bottom removing out of focus leaves. That blue just jumps off the page. Dark background and the lighter tones of green under the leaves shows well too. I think you can see some of those sprouts starting off the stigma sort of look like fine like spider webs. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Envious of this one as I spent a full morning trying to photograph these in North Dakota last week - 20 MPs weren't gonna get it done on my end! Only time the bird came close he landed on a shitty perch.

Colors are wonderful, and the singing pose is great. Subject really cracks on the lime background. Don't mind the OOF leaves at the bottom one bit. I can see what Dan is saying about the breast feathers but it's really, really minor. Eye and face
are nice and sharp so that's what matters.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brian, these set ups in the garden are producing some cool opportunities, and having such clean backdrops really does emphasis the separation and offer clarity to the subject. I like the framing and having it calling is a bonus. Personally I think you can open it up by around a third, but masking the chest of the subject. Using a Curves/HSL adjustment you can also then tweak the green, it's a little drab to my eye and I feel going 'brighter' just adds a little more life into the scene. Agree with Dan, overall there is more there to pullout, especially in the foliage, but some may feel it distracts, I guess personal taste again.

TFS
Steve

[Kurt Bowman]

Great singing pose Brian! I also like the foliage and the crop. I agree the details on your images are normally a bit more defined, (speaking of the chest), but the head is nice and sharp and that's where it counts most. I think the repost background is too bright and competes with the bird. I like the original post better. Also, I didn't see you say this was a setup...it doesn't look like a garden setup to me.

[Brian Sump]

You are killing it Brian hard to pick apart. Beautiful on all accounts. I could see a different crop off the bottom removing out of focus leaves. That blue just jumps off the page. Dark background and the lighter tones of green under the leaves shows well too. I think you can see some of those sprouts starting off the stigma sort of look like fine like spider webs. TFS

Kevin, man I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, the bottom oof can be a bit of a drawback but I was hesitant to pull in any more from bottom as I had to pull in from top to keep the ratio and I feared IQ loss.

Those sprouts are kinda cool, just a little bit of character.


Great subject and a nice classic comp.. Bird looks OK, details are so so for you.
Dont take this wrong like you can do.. It is a top notch photo. I just think that the white breast feathers and the feathers in general don"t have great sharpness or detail like most of yours.



Envious of this one as I spent a full morning trying to photograph these in North Dakota last week - 20 MPs weren't gonna get it done on my end! Only time the bird came close he landed on a shitty perch.

Colors are wonderful, and the singing pose is great. Subject really cracks on the lime background. Don't mind the OOF leaves at the bottom one bit. I can see what Dan is saying about the breast feathers but it's really, really minor. Eye and face
are nice and sharp so that's what matters.



Hi Brian, these set ups in the garden are producing some cool opportunities, and having such clean backdrops really does emphasis the separation and offer clarity to the subject. I like the framing and having it calling is a bonus. Personally I think you can open it up by around a third, but masking the chest of the subject. Using a Curves/HSL adjustment you can also then tweak the green, it's a little drab to my eye and I feel going 'brighter' just adds a little more life into the scene. Agree with Dan, overall there is more there to pullout, especially in the foliage, but some may feel it distracts, I guess personal taste again.

TFS
Steve

Thanks for the comments.

I put two screen and soft light curve layers with slightly different masks on the chest to pull out as much as possible but it started to gray out. I think the detail you are commenting on is valid, and I take it as a compliment, but I think between the Bunting calling at 1/800 (they are quite herky jerky when they call) and it being filtered/low, side lit light where the whites caught the majority of it, they just didn't have as much to pull out - at least not with my skills.

Steve, this (and the previous songbirds) I posted are far from garden set ups. I have put in lots of time and field craft to get them. A couple I used audio on, some not, so hopefully it makes them that much more appreciable.

Please feel free to email me reposts. Comments here are sufficient for me, thanks :-)


Great singing pose Brian! I also like the foliage and the crop. I agree the details on your images are normally a bit more defined, (speaking of the chest), but the head is nice and sharp and that's where it counts most. I think the repost background is too bright and competes with the bird. I like the original post better. Also, I didn't see you say this was a setup...it doesn't look like a garden setup to me.

Kurt, that's right man. Thank you for saying and for sharing feedback on the details. Brought out what I could here and glad you like the og bkg too!

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful image of a beautiful bird. I remember some earlier images when the Mahogany had its spiral blooms, but this one is equally lovely. Great singing pose and spectacular colors on the bird. Steve's RP does bring out a bit more sharp detail on the breast feathers, and on the perch, but I prefer the overall tones of the OP.

[John Mack]

Love that solid green background. The calling pose is nice. Good job on the vertical framing. Beautiful bird.

[Jay Ing]

Late to the party but I really like this one Brian. You've been posting some wonderful shots for a very long time. Thumbs up on your work.