Northern Shrike

[Raymond Lee]

It's that time of the year when birds that breed in the north migrate and stay here for winter. I found this Shrike on a telephone wire on the side of the road. After some slow approaches and a few hide and seek by the bird, it got used to my presence and allowed me to get some eye-level captures. At the time of the capture was an overcast sky.

102979

Beaver County, Alberta, Canada. October 2, 2011
Canon EOS 7D | EF 400mm f/5.6L | Manual mode, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800 @ 400mm.

Thanks for all C&C.

Raymond

[Randy Stout]

Raymond.

Excellent high key image, like his pose, angle in frame. Good exposure, sharp.

I find that high key images often need a very thin dark border to keep them from blending with the background of the site.

In a perfect world, I wish the upright twig wasn't there, as it really stands out against the white BG.

I could see a version with about 1/4 -1/3 more exposure on the bird, and perhaps just a bit more contrast too.

Cheers

Randy

[Raul Padilla]

great eye contact and detail in the belly, i like the pose, i agreed woth remove the twig

[Dave Leroy]

Good for you to be able to get so close on a sometimes skittish bird.
I like Randy's suggestion of a border and a bit more work on the bird to make it stand out a tad more.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good work approaching this individual...ours here tend to flee from quite far away! This is a young fella, so like many younger birds perhaps this one was just more tolerant of human presence. I agree a thin black border would help with the high-key image. Well done Ray!