Western Meadowlark

[Tom Wilberding]

Canon EOS 50D, 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 lens, 400mm, ISO 200, 1/500 at f/5.6, +1/3 EV, 580 EXII flash at -1 with Better Beamer.

I was about 21 feet from this cooperative Western Meadowlark in my SUV on the Pawnee National Grasslands east of Ft. Collins, CO. I used a BLU bean bag. It was 11:48am with harsh shadows, so the flash helped a lot. In Lightroom I cropped it by about half to a portrait orientation, and lowered the exposure, as well as a few other minor tweaks.

I am a beginner and grateful for all comments.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Not in love with the perch , but still wish it were mine. One of the birds on my want list. This is a beautiful image with great detail and terriffic use of fill flash. Congrats on this image.

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

This is a beautiful bird. Nice detail and color. Well done!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Terrific pose. Exposure and sharpness look good as posted. Ugly perch, too bad it wasn't at least a wooden fence post! I love your BG, but I would lose the blue band at top - cropping it out, even though the image is already heavily cropped, would render a more pleasing finish and comp (resulting with the bird higher in the frame). Another alternative would be to extend the green just below by way of the clone stamp...

Overall very well done.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Pose and eye contact are good and the fill flash helped with the harsh light. Too bad the bird didn't pick a more attractive perch.

[Harshad Barve]

Except perch everything is mighty fine here
TFS

[James Yule]

Tom 95% of all my shots of Meadowlark on a man made perch lol I like the shot.

[Tom Wilberding]

Thanks for all these comments, observations, and suggestions--very helpful and encouraging!
In partial defense or excuse for the perch, out on the prairie there are no trees, so traditionally not much wood available for wooden posts. Also, with this sharp metal post you get to see the Meadowlarks interesting "toenails.":)
But next time I will hope for a more natural looking perch versus the stark realism of a metal post.
Thanks, again!
Tom