Migrating Rufous

[George Cottay]

Migrating Rufous have temporarily joined our aerial circus. Second only to the feeders the top of the lemon tree is hotly contested territory. Winter rains were sparse in much on the Sonoran desert this year, so the territory around feeders is especially prized. This well groomed bird was shot at just before full dusk. He was facing the setting sun but with the small aperture used to improve DOF most of the light was supplied by the flash through a Better Beamer.

Aperture Value - F 16.00
Exposure Bias Value - 0
Max Aperture Value - F 5.66
Subject Distance - 6.16 m
Metering Mode - Spot
Flash - Flash fired, Compulsory flash mode
Focal Length - 700 mm (500mm + 1.4)
Exposure Mode - Manual

[Randy Stout]

George:

Thanks for the natural history info.

Good flash work, well exposed, like the well scaled perch, head angle.

The head seems just a little less sharp than the body, which surprises me a bit at this f/stop, should have had enough DOF. You didn't mention your shutter speed, so possibly a little motion blur.

I generally wouldn't use such a small f/stop, inorder to have more flexibility on aperture and shutter speed.

Which camera?

Look forward to seeing more!

Cheers

Randy

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice perch & pose, George. The blue BG works well, maybe just a bit more sharpening to bring out more detail.

[George Cottay]

Thanks for the spot-on and educational critiques.