High key Chickadee

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well, Mother Nature let us have it one more time with over 50cm of snow fallen during this latest storm. This has pushed this winter's total to over 400cm for only the second time in Ottawa's recorded snowfall history!! I still ventured out and captured this image this morning in the company of fellow member Wayne Wood. A lucky shot, really, as I did not expect it to flee at the same time I pressed the shutter button.

The snow was already fairly bright here so I decided to make it into a high key photograph and pushed the whites brighter and cloned out the remaining spots. I burned the shadow underneath the bird and the flying snow bits behind to make them more visible and to anchor the subject within the frame.

Canon Rebel + 100-400L @400mm, manual, 1/800s., f/8, ISO400, handheld standing in snow up to mid-thigh :) ~75% full-frame.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_Black-cappedChickadee_0941-01.jpg

[KurtPreston]

I especially like the flying snow bits and that you caught it at *just* the right moment where the wings were a goin' but the body had yet to follow :) Been trying to get a stop action shot on chickadees for awhile now. When I do catch them on thier flight start up they are twisting away as they rise (and blur) or they sit and listen to the shutter clicks until the buffer is full ... then take off :)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful work Daniel and a great blur . Excellent sharp detail and eye contact. Love this !!

[Gayle Clement]

Very nice blur and sharp head and eye. A fun photo to see.

[Stephen Stephen]

Great image Dan. It's hard to imagine how beautiful it was today after the storm we've had for 48 hours.

I couldn't get out of our street this morning and the snowbanks on our driveway are now over 2.3 metres (~7 feet) high.

[Steve Wheeler]

Very cool image! Literally and figuratively...

If you hadn't have been out there you wouldn't gotten anything so it wasn't ALL luck!

Well done!

Steve

[James Salywoda]

Excellent shot Daniel I love the pose, details and the wing blur....

[peter delaney]

lovely image Daniel... I wud just tilt the snow a little.... otherwise very nice..

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I Iove the wing position,pose and the clean bg!

[Anita Rakestraw]

Sweet indeed!

[David Hemmings]

This is really sweet Daniel. love the pose and the setting, maybe a little more black in levels and or contrast.

[Grady Weed]

I'd say you accomplished a great image. High keyed images are terrific when done properly. The implied movement is nice.

[Charles Senkus]

really like the eye i am never able to get the eye to look like that on my shots of these little guys!