Beauty Among the Thorns

[Jim Fenton]

A goldfinch image created this past Saturday in fairly late afternoon light between thunderstorms.

This male spent darn near 15 minutes on this one flower head, eventually creating a neat seen which I'll share later on.

Nikon D300, 500 AFS~VR, ISO 640, f 11, NearUniWB preset, CW metering, -.3 EV compensation.

Note: F 11 used for DOF as I was right at 15' from this subject and needed to maximize my DOF which is rather thin at that close range.

[carole wiley]

Jim, I truly do love this photo. I like the comp, the light and the colors. The open beak is great and the head angle is perfect. I really like the environment alot. The bird being pretty much central doesn't bother me.

[Doug Brown]

I'm with Carole on this one. Great image Jim! I would probably remove the gray line behind the eye, but I love the composition, behavior captured, and eye contact.

[Jim Fenton]

I completely missed that little shadow line....

Thanks for mentioning it :)

[Greg Basco]

Jim, this is a wonderful habitat image!

Cheers,
Greg

[Glenda Simmons]

Great image, so colorful and sharp. I sure miss seeing these Finches in my yard, in spite of what I spend to feed them! But they'll be back this winter. I look forward to seeing that "scene" you were referring to.

[Rod Wiley]

Love the whole photo, colors every thing is great

[Raymond Barlow]

well done Jim., always great to shoot these birds at this time of year, in their natural habitat.