A Caterpillar for Lunch

[Mark Itol]

Here's a Lowland White-eye (Zosterops meyeni), an endemic from the Philippines, having a caterpillar for lunch. Taken after I had lunch and a short rest. These guys are always a challenge to shoot as they are small and in perpetual motion. The light from the mid-day sun was harsh and the bird's position under the leaves didn't help. Heck I was shooting ISO 1250 at noon!


Hope you like it.



http://markitol.smugmug.com/Philippine-Birds/Trip/Kampo-Trexo-14-Jan-2012/i-8BTkW8T/0/XL/IMG0633ws-XL.jpg
40D, 400 f/5.6 L, ISO 1250, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, manual exposure, handheld

[Randy Stout]

Mark:

An attractive bird, like the action captured, great eye.

Challenging lighting conditions to say the least, with some areas overexposed, such as the caterpillar.

The RLC is very bright, might be worth toning it down a bit so it doesn't draw the eye. I would also consider toning down the top of the perch.

In a perfect world, would prefer him a bit more on our side of the perch, it would lessen the impact of the shooting angle.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mark, we have these fellows here in SA, 'Cape white eyes ' certainly busy characters. It must have been pretty dark ( although the image doesnt show it )to use ISO 1250 and only come away with a ss of 1/320. Randy has covered everything there is to mention. When I start off with a shoot, I always check my histogram for exposure. In this, if your blinkies are on, it would have showed up the highlight areas, and you could have adjusted accordingly.

[Mark Itol]

Thank you, Randy and Stuart. Totally agree with the points you mentioned.

@Stuart I use the same approach, too. :) The tricky part was that these guys were constantly moving from one branch to another (varying lighting). On hindsight I could have used a darker exposure to contain the highlights. Better luck next time.