Pileated Woodpecker male

[Ted Willcox]

EOS - 1D MarkIII
Canon 600 F4 IS Lens & 1.4 x Tele
Aperture Priority AE
Evauative Metering
ISO 500
1/200 F5.6
Expo. comp - 2/3
Oct. 22/08 Overcast 11:59 AM
Image taken on Gabriola Island. The BG colour is a Dawn redwood in fall colour.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Stunning image of this pileated woodpecker. Great eye contact and pose and a very lovely BG. The only thing I am not sure of is the upper left hand corner of the BG. Was something cloned ?? Excellent exposure and detail in the blacks.. Fine capture.

[Ted Willcox]

Thanks Judy for the comments. The upper left corner is a out of focus branch. I was thinking of cloning it out when I was optimizing it, but I didn't. But it is a little annoying, isn't it?
Yours in Wildness
Ted

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Ted,

Definitely get rid of that OOF branch!

It is a no big deal alteration and the rest of the image is so clean and beautiful, it's a shame not to do it.

Great background for the bird!

[Alan Murphy]

An incredible shot of this species. The BG alone is wonderful as is the tree with all that detail. I'd only crop a little off the bottom.

[Jim Poor]

Very nice image, I'd only clone or crop away that upper left corner.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great trunk, pose, BG and exposure control. Just the little OOF branch in the upper left is distracting.

[Linda Robbins]

Agree with cloning out the oof bit in the top left corner.... the only nit in a very beautiful image. Good pose, striking bg color, and good exposure control. Well done.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

It doesn't mean anything but this is most probably the best PWP image I have ever seen. The settings and the bg adds something to its perfectness.
Szimi