Horned Lark.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm still slowly but surely going through Florida images from mid February!! In the meatime, I did go out locally - I can't forget about my "true" winter birds...winter = cold and snow:S3:. This one was taken two weeks ago, but finally decided to take a break form Florida stuff to post-process a few taken since then...

Canon 30D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/2500s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +1.7 EC, natural light, handheld (from car), about 80% FF.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Really nice IQ and the bird pops from the BG...Lovely looking bird...Nicely done Daniel

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the exposure, sharpness and pose. Well done Daniel!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

They always look so grumpy. Must be tired of snow, waiting for spring! I know I am.

Sharp, well exposed, nice down the barrel pose.

The image looks a bit flat to me re: contrast, which reflects what the lighting was like, but I might do some localized contrast enhancement on the bird.

Not a huge fan of the dirty snow.

Cheers

Randy

[Tom Rambaut]

Agree with the smidgen of contrast.

Wonderful detail and it always amazes me how close you seem to get to the bird Daniel.

I have not seen this species before - does look grumpy, did you ask it to smile?:eek:

I do like the pastel brown colour of the body in contrast to the yellow of the head, overall a pleasing image to look at. Oh the dirty snow does not bother me.

[Doug Brown]

Grumpy is the perfect adjective to describe this bird's expression. Like the sharpness but I agree with Randy that the image looks a little flat. That said, I don't know what winter plumage looks like for these birds, and you were dealing with overcast skies.