Black Capped Chickadee

[Scott Grant]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/2878229785_e451ef2057_o.jpg

These little guys don't stick around too long!

Shot with a D300, Nikkor 300mm f4 with 1.7X Nikkor Teleconverter.
Manual Mode
ISO 1000
f8 at 1/200 sec.
SB-800 for fill

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light and BG and wish for a bit more eye contact. The bird looks a bit oversharpened on my monitor.

[Scott Grant]

thanks for the heads up Axel. i did have photos of this bird with better head angle but for some reason this one appealed to me a little more.

thanks for the critique! :)

[carole wiley]

Good job making the eyes stand out, always hard with these guys.

[Maxis Gamez]

HI Scott, I have to agree with Axel regarding the sharpening. Looks like you selected the bird and applied sharpening leaving a line all around the bird. I know is very difficult to select the bird but we can't leave any evidence of it. With that said, I love the pose, BG and exposure!

[Scott Grant]

thanks for the words everyone!

Maxis,

i use Capture NX2 to edit my photos. i'm using selective control points to do my sharpening and noise reduction.

i just had a close look at the image posted here and i think that what you say you see around the bird are actually jpeg artifacts. i've been trying to decrease the files sizes that i upload recently. i think i may have compressed this one a little too much. i had a look at the original image at full resolution and i see absolutly no evidence of what we see in this photo.

i'll certainly keep this in mind the next time around. thanks for the heads up! geez, you guys don't miss much! :D

[Maxis Gamez]

thanks for the words everyone!

Maxis,

geez, you guys don't miss much! :D

I agree :) :D