Punk Rock Kinglet

[Doug Brown]

You gotta love the spiky pink hairdo of this Ruby-Crowned Kinglet! He is spending the winter in my girlfriend's backyard. I attracted him to the perch by using a call.

http://birdwhisperer.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/BPN/20091219-MG5686-Ruby-Crowned/744784682_RQXZE-O-3.jpg

Canon 7D, 400mm, f/7.1, 1/2500, ISO 640, -1 EC, hand held

[Bill Dix]

Great behavior shot, Doug. It looks like your call got this guy upset. What did you say to him? Nice sharp image.

[Jim Crosswell]

Love that spiked hairdo! Excellent image Doug.

[Jim Fenton]

Love the pose and the vibrant red hair up front :)

Sharpness and exposure are right on.

The only thing I might do differently is to darken the upper RH corner as I think it will draw more attention to the subject. Not that it isn't already commanding lots of attention!

Doug...Looking at it again there is some posterization and some funky tonal transitions / banding going in where the light and dark background areas fade into one another.

[scott benson]

wow, what a lovely shot doug, what a funnky like bird.

[Nancy A Elwood]

WOW Doug, how cool is this wondeful subject!! Very well done!!

[adrian dancy]

Cracking capture as is. Good sharpness , colour and interest. I wouldn't change a thing.

[Bryan Hix]

Awesome. Nice job. Don't know if you could have gotten more DOF at that angle, but it's sharp where it counts.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Brian. Getting enough DOF would have been tough in this situation. If I had gone with f/16, my total DOF would have been only 1.8", probably not enough to get the rest of the bird sharp.

[Aidan Briggs]

As long as the eye is sharp it's good enough for me! I don't think I've ever seen an image of this species with its crest raised this much! Great light, decent perch, and perfect exposure and HA. The two light blobs in the BG bug me a little.

Well Done!

[Danny J Brown]

Man, I've never seen one of these before. I shot a golden-crowned kinglet the other day but not near as cool as this little guy. Your capture is dead on in every way and beautifully sharp. I love everything about it, Doug!

[Harshad Barve]

Man-o-man , What a good looking species and yes , you gotta love that hairdo ,
beautiful image with everything spot on
TFS

[Gary Esman]

This is gorgeous, love the tight DOF.

[Mack Hicks]

Don King, eat your heart out. YOU have never looked that cool! These guys never sit still for a second.

[Ofer Levy]

Great sharpness and detail on the head. Since its a setup I would prefer to see some more DOF - using a tripod could be the way to go.

[Morkel Erasmus]

great capture, love the DOF, HA and colours Doug!

[David Fletcher]

Ditto the Don King thingy... Excellent shot Doug. Best to you and your loved ones for Xmas & 2010.

[Chris van Rooyen]

What a quaint looking fellow! Like the side-lighting, well done on making it work on such a small subject!

[ramesh anantharaman]

hello doug,

it doesnt get cuter than this. what a funny hair do. was that branch electrified? :))

wish you a merry christmas and very happy and prosperous new year.

ramesh

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved this Doug Bhai, great Hairdo indeed, loved the pose here, really put this image on top..

Seasons greetings to you too Bhai, Have fun.

[david cramer]

I live not far from Doug and I've never seen this one! Very nice capture, with good detail where it counts. I can barely see the banding Jim mentioned that must come from conversion to jpg. I'd agree about the darkening the white bg areas. Do you have a call system you recommend?

[Suzanne Huot]

What a far out and wonderful image of this little kinglet,love his expression

[Doug Brown]

Doug...Looking at it again there is some posterization and some funky tonal transitions / banding going in where the light and dark background areas fade into one another.

It's there alright. But only in the web JPEG. I may have another go at the image and even out the tonality of the BG. I'll address the tonal transitions too.

[James Salywoda]

Awesome shot Doug I like the pose captured and the raised crest such a cool little bird.

[Mike Veltri]

Wow! I love it. This is an image I have been tring to capture with the raised crown. These guys are like mexican jumping beans on steroids. So to see one with the crown up isolated is grand. Congrats.
Happy Holidays!

[paul leverington]

Ha-Ha!!! This is too much Doug!! The ultimate kinglet doo shot!!! What a scream!


Paul