Early Morning Chipping Sparrow

[jack williamson]

Setup. 7:10 A.M. Nikon D700, 300mm f2.8, 1.4 tc, tripod. 1/160, f6.3, ISO400. Aperture priority, +1 ev. Adjusted wb, brightness, vibrance in acr, S/H, color adj. toned down perch, usm in cs3. This is a fairley large crop and the bird will not take any more sharpening. The BG is the morning sun shining on woods about 20 yards away.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Wouldn't have known it was a large crop and i actually feel you can back off the sharpening a bit . I love the pose , the head turn, and that awesome perch.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ditto Cheryl about the sharpness...thank goodness you can't push it more!:w3 Excellent BG, and the setup, although large, works quite well. I'd tone down the brighter areas within the perch even more though. Don't be scared to raise the ISO for more SS...even if doesn't seem to need it here it can really help at times. Well done.

[gail bisson]

I agree that bird looks a bit oversharpened to me. I love the perch and the BG. A beautiful shot of an ordinary bird that makes him not so ordinary afyter all!
gail

[laurie golden]

Great shot of this very small bird and on a perch that I would not have tried because it probably has more depth than the bird. You did a great job. When the bird is small I usually add more space around it to call attention to it's size in it's environment. You may want to process another one of these birds and crop it a little less. That said, I do like the crop in this one.

[Marina Scarr]

Ditto on the sharpness but I love this capture. I find it very artistic and the colors work together SO well.

[jack williamson]

I really appreciate all of your input.

Jack

[Luis Villablanca]

Love the background colors and the pose.
Since this was a setup I wonder if it could have been done with a single branch.
I think the image would look much more beautiful if it didn't have the three lower flowers.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the look back pose, perch and BG colours are amazing. I would go down to a single perch set-up as well. Keep them coming Jack.

[jack williamson]

Thanks Jim and Luis.

Jack

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Jack! Love the clarity here, yet for some reason this looks to me a little bit "HDR"-ish?? :Whoa!:

[jack williamson]

Hello Morkel. No hdr. This was taken March 1 of this year. The new growth was just starting in the woods and I had seen the way the early sun made them seem to glow the day before and was ready the next morning. I boosted saturation a little on the whole image. This whole image was lit by that great late winter sun.

Jack

[Troy Lim]

Love the HD feel to this shot..