Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Image created at a friend's backyard in Lyndhurst, Ontario. Thanks Wayne!

A few weeks ago I saw a fallen dried-up tree close to my home in Ottawa, so on the eve of my trek I went and gathered a few branches off of it to bring with me. I was also happy to see his apple trees in full bloom...

Canon 30D + 100-400L @330mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/6.3, ISO 800 (settings histogram checked), natural light, handheld. A bad green cast under the belly and tail removed via dodge (to lighten a bit) and sponge (to desaturate) tools.

[Dan Brown]

BEEEEaautifullll!!!!! Daniel, this is really a winner!

[Ofer Levy]

A lovely image indeed!! :cheers:

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Lovely bird,nice angle, neat perch, colorful background.

Well done!

Cheers

Randy

[Andrew McLachlan]

Daniel, very nice capture, love the out of focus apple tree blossom background!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Daniel. A very cool north-woods perch! Also, a very nice pose by the bird plus good exposure and sharpness - topped off by a lovely background! Well done.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Lovely image, Daniel. Perch, bg, pose, comp, bird ... all top notch. You are the man.

[Marina Scarr]

Everything came together extremely nicely for you here. Great perch and lovely BG.

[Sachin Saraf]

Wow this is beautiful capture!!

The BG, perch,Sharpness and exposure is amazing.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice, colors look great would be nice to see at 1024 pixels

[Jonathan Ashton]

Its a lovely image, ideally the perch would not have bisected the bird.

[Chris Kotze]

Super detail, colours and pose. Excellent image.

[Kim.K.K.Lam]

Beautiful image,I love the background colors...Daniel.

[gail bisson]

The Bg and the perch are beautiful. Love the moss. Nice exposure. A winner.
Gail

[Geoff Warnock]

Great from me too! Really complimentary colours and details.

[Steve Wasson]

Well executed and very pretty!

[Bill Dix]

Lovely shot, Daniel. Great perch. I've been looking for one like that for my back yard -- maybe your friend could ship a branch or two.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel, excellent all around. what a terrific perch and BG. exposure looks very good..loved the soft light.

If mine, I'd take a tad off from the right side.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely BG and perch...Good all around image!

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Dan, Im a bit late here, but all I can say is........Simply superb. An opportunity well used. :w3

[Kiran Poonacha]

Such a grand setting DC with a beautiful bird in it.. loved it.. :cheers:

[Danny J Brown]

Those bloomin' apple trees made for a heck of a shot, complimenting the rose color on the gorgeous bird. Nice!

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Daniel! I like the perch, BG and exposure.

[Tom Rambaut]

I like the red red contrast between the background and the under chin of the bird. I saw a simular image with matching red BG and bird in th eposts and this is indeed a neat idea.

[Richard Unsworth]

:S3:

These are great birds to see; the females also have lovely colors, not the same of course.

This is an excellent shot all round, much more difficult to get exposed right than you make it look; the white wing bars easily burn. Handheld at 1/250 (330mm), and tack sharp shows your technique is excellent.
Another great image for a 100-400 :t3

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks a bunch everyone!:S3: