Feed me!

[gail bisson]

Canon 7D
F2.8 70-200 at 200mm
ISO 1000 (with a 7D:eek:)
SS 1/400
F 2.8
Manual No flash
Cropped all around by 10%
I had to bump my ISO in order to freeze the rapid head movement of Mom while she regurgitated lunch. This isn't a "wall hanger" but I love the behavior recorded by this image.
I decided not to clone tree that intersects with Mom's head but would appreciate your input.
Comments and critiques always appreciated.

[Melissa Groo]

Brave of you to go to 1000 on the 7D, Gail! I get too nervous to go over 800 on mine! But looks like it worked out well for you. Nice job freezing the action. Great view of the young one's face. I'm amazed how close you were able to get to use that lens, what a great opportunity you found. Wonderful behavior shot and details. BG tree doesn't bother me.

[Danny J Brown]

A moment in nature, wonderfully frozen for all to see. I agree with Melissa that you must have been able to get amazingly close to get that shot with the 200mm. A few red button issues with the shot that you might hear about but I love it! Well done. Thank you.

DB

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Amazing that you can get in so close. They aren't tolerant at all around here. I have shot them with a 600mm and needed a lot more!

Neat feeding image, but your self critique about the mom's head angle is appropriate. A better head angle on mom would have increased the impact significantly.

I probably wouldn't clone out the intersecting trunk, but might try to tone it and the background down on the side a bit.

Perhaps you will have the opportunity to shoot some when the adult lands on the other side of the hole, so they are more angled towards you!

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a wonderful opportunity!! I'm experiencing the same with Great-crestyed Flycathers...and getting a good HA on the adult while feeding the chicks has been futile so far. I don't mind it at all as this is how you see it anyhow (althoug I admit I wish the head was indeed tilted a bit less). I'm also OK with the BG tree. I do wish the blacks on the plumage were darker, and find the overall WB a bit too blue. I've added 10% to the black channel in "Selective Color", then added yellow and red in "Color Balance" (about 10 points each). Hope you like...

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Gail, love the action. Feather details have been smoothened as a result of NR and the tree looks sharper than the birds... it is always challenging to run NR on noisy dark feather without wiping out the texture.

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for your helpful comments. I should described how I got this shot.
The birds started building this nest on a friend's property back in March. My friend then put up a ladder against a tree that was about 20-25 feet away from the tree with the nest (there was no baby yet). He then draped the ladder in burlap and left it there until the chick hatched on May 21. The parents were used to the ladder and burlap and never appeared to notice when I was standing on the ladder.
Thanks Daniel for the corrections. A lot of my pics have that blue cast (from forest canopy) and I thought that I had removed it by changing the tint on LR3 but you did a much better job.
The parents always fed baby from this side of the tree so I was never able to get a shot with the parents' eye fully visible.
Gail

[Wynand van Wyk]

A superb interaction captured! Love the action and colours. Agree on the noise reduction taking away some of the detail. I like Daniel's repost.

Superbly done!:S3:

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice interaction and I agree with the above comments re NR and BG trunk. But I see people commenting regularly on noise performance of the 7D. I used mine successfully to 3200 and still with correct exp (underexposing a killer, even at ISO 400) and reasonable PP skills its not a problem Obviously its no D3s or 1D MKIV, but if used properly you will get good results. Tough conditions well handled in my opinion

[Stu Bowie]

Gail, well timed to capture the feeding moment, and Im also ok with the BG. I do feel you could try and sharpen youngster if possible, and hopefully you get another chance to get a better HA. :w3 Still, well captured.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, lots of points already covered very well. I like the WB in Daniel's post and the darker blacks also help. One good thing you got is the chick's head position. Well done. Excellent DOF as well.

I think the trunk and birds can use some more sharpening.

[Karl Egressy]

My only point is that it looks fantastic, Gail. Such a great opportunity.

[Craig Brelsford]

This is a useful thread. Daniel's repost is better, but I still think that perhaps a simple upping of the contrast would coax more color out of the scene. Dumay's words about ISO are helpful, even though I'm not a Canon user. "Expose to the right of the histogram!": useful thoughts, indeed. Gail, your description in Pane 7 is so useful, it should have been included in your original post; that's highly relevant material; you quash any concerns about bothering the family and show us how you got that good angle.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is a useful thread. Daniel's repost is better, but I still think that perhaps a simple upping of the contrast would coax more color out of the scene.

True, and I do like to add contrast to my images. But I did not want to affect the whites, hence the method I used in this case. I suppose you could first mask the whites and then raise the contrast...