Goldcrest II

[Craig Brelsford]

I shot this hard-workin' little goldcrest on New Year's Day at my spot in the Shanghai park. Unlike my previous photo*, in which the bird was hovering, in this shot my goldcrest is transiting; he's just finished hovering and is moving on to the next bunch of dead leaves. I too would have loved another shot with the nearly ideal BG of my first goldcrest. What this shot lacks in beauty, though, I'm hoping it will make up for in interest; it's not as though shooting one of the smallest birds in the Palearctic in flight were easy. Your comments solicited; thanks for looking!

Device: Nikon D3S
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal length: 600mm
VR: OFF
Aperture: F/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/4000
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Metering: Center-Weighted
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 3200
Photoshoppery: NR on OOF parts.

*Previous goldcrest here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?77402-Goldcrest&highlight=

[Charles Scheffold]

Fantastic detail and great timing!

That said, the large gray section on the right is very distracting - it's very similar to the bird's color. If it were mine I'd probably try to tone that down a bit.

Charles

[Geoff Warnock]

Getting a bird this small in flight with such detail is a great achievement!

There can't be many (or any!) of these shots out there, so the uniqueness would outweigh the background troubles for me. You could possibly use some of the sampled green background to paint over the grey area lightly.

[Stu Bowie]

Craig, no small bird is easy to capture in flight, but in this, you have certainly captured a great flying posture.
I like the wing position, and sharp where it counts. I assume shooting in a park, you will be restricted with an open BG, but take a pat on the back for capturing this flight posture.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Craig, I agree with the others an excellent flight image, clarity, colour and wing position are great with a clearly visible gold crest. Allthough I am not bothered by the background my wish would have been for the background leaves to extend all the way across the screen.