Eastern Towhee

[rebphoto]

I was at Point Pelee the other day and I spotted this Eastern Towhee who usually are not very cooperative but this one was nice enough to jump up on a pile of vines and gave me a couple seconds to take about three quick photos.

C&C welcome

Thanks Rodney

http://rebphotography.smugmug.com/photos/522609462_26n7f-L.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Rodney:

Nice to capture these guys. I have some in my backyard, and I haven't been able to get one off the ground for a picture yet. I suspect you have seen it, but they have such a fun feeding technique, with their little litter dance, flying leaf litter, jump back, jump forward.

Your light was pretty harsh, and I think you did Ok with the exposure. Maybe a few hot pixels. The blacks are blocked on the head and some other areas, but better that then blowing the whites completely.

The foreground and background are a bit cluttered, which is par for the course for these guys.
Thanks for sharing. I am trying to figure out a low perch that they might jump up onto to give me a clean background!

Cheers

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Rodney:

I had a second so I down loaded your image and played with it a bit. Backing down the contrast 10 points in NX2 did open up the blacks a bit. They were significantly blocked when I checked.

You might want to play with that a bit. The value may vary depending on your software, but the idea will work.

Randy

[rebphoto]

Thanks Randy:

I will try that and your right they are a lot of fun to watch when feeding

Rodney