Golden-hooded Tanager

I was recently starting to make travel arrangements for my 2014 Costa Rica workshop when I realized that I hardly posted any photos from the 2013 workshop. This is a Golden-hooded Tanager, a small but absolutely gorgeous bird, photographed at one of our destinations. Perches can make or break an image, and this one really adds to the photo IMO. Also of note, the improved close focus of the Canon 600mm II is a huge bonus for this type of photography; it allows you to preserve your f/4 maximum aperture (for improved AF) while still getting the bird large in the frame.

Canon 1Dx, 600mm II, f/7.1, 1/400, ISO 800, manual exposure, fill flash, tripod

Doug:

A spectacular little fellow,with fine flash use, barely visible on the bird, just a bit more evident on the right side of the perch (bottom side)

Comp works well for this pose and perch.

Must put this workshop on my bucket list!

Congrats

Randy

This is spectacular, love the pose details in the blacks colors and the perch.

Beautiful image of a beautiful bird,great BG,nice perch and light,sharp good detail,well done.

Seen these so many times, brings back memories.
Spectacular capture - - beautiful

Lovely colorful bird. Nice details, perch & BG.

Nice angle perch, excellent pose and fantastic colours, Doug.

Perfect comp and light, nice work.

Hi Doug, striking, is an understatement for the colours on this species. Excellent exposure on all colours, tack sharp, and nicely angled in the frame. Love the foliage on the perch.

This image is absolutely out of this world!!! The colors and details are amazing. Super perch and BG and undetectable use of fill.

Superb image
Great colours on the bird and the details are fantastic, i love the composition
the Green BG makes it lovelier

The color is over the top.
The perch is so good that it sort of takes my eye off the bird.
Lucky the bird is that bright or it would be dwarfed by it.
It would be worth bringing it home for set ups!

Doug Sir,
Gorgeous image of gorgeous bird.
Love the pose, wonderful colors, details very nice perch and BG.
Bird very nicely pops up against beautiful BG.

Regards,
Satish.

That is show stopping plumage. Beautiful perch selection too. A delight to look at this image, and I've looked several times. :)

striking image of a striking bird! superb comp, details & BG.

Many thanks for the feedback!

This image is just superb, it's all about those beautiful saturated colours helped by the subdued light and fill flash, are you sure you didn't use Velvia film for this one Doug :S3: Also a nice interesting perch and clean BG.

Wow!!
Beautiful bird and image.
Excellent perch, teriffic pose, excellent details, and great comp.
Very well done.

Wow that is a gorgeous bird and you captured it beautifully. Awesome colors and a beautiful perch for him. Can't get over the colors on this guy, one of the most striking birds I have ever seen. Great background also. I gota get to Costa Rica soon.
Very well done. This would make a beautiful print.

Awesome, Doug! Great pose, perch, and background. This doesn't look flashed at all - which means you did it right. Also, good detail in both the blacks and the yellow/orange on the head - not an easy thing to accomplish with this species. Excellent work!