House Wren and Juicy Prey Item.

Photographed near a nest box (which is just to the left of the frame) where I fastened a perch on the barbed wire fence. The wrens immediately knew to hop on it before entering the box to feed some young ones still inside...no training needed, although I was hoping for them to perch on the double knob at top!

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/8, ISO 400, natural light, handheld, small crop for comp, darkened some parts of the perch via burn tool, "greenified" the BG which turned out yellower than I remembered.

I really like this shot.
House Wrens can look really good if they have the right light, perch and pose.
It looks like you got them all plus a beauty background, Daniel.
I almost forgot to mention the food item which adds to the image a lot.

Daniel:

The wren is excellent, sharp, well exposed, nice tidbit, angle in frame.

It is interesting how often yellow sneaks into the bg. I find that in the water for my loon pictures as well.

I am undecided about the right side of the perch. I think it has the potential to draw the eye out of the frame. I might consider lowering the luminosity and contrast on the end of it as it exits the frame to reduce that effect.

Cheers

Randy

Another super frame Daniel. Sweet light, great pose, a little snack. and excellent sharpness. I wouldn't mind a BG with a bit more going on; it's a little to uniform IMO.

Striking image! The right end of the perch is a little too interesting for me -- it pulls the eye from the beautiful bird with it's delicious-looking snack. I think the image would work well with some crop from the right, and burn down anything left of that area, as Randy suggested. If you want to maintain the aspect ratio, a little could come off the top.

IQ is great, prey really adds, great light. The fork of the perch is the distracting part to me. These wrens might need just a little bit of training!

Absolutely superb image, Daniel Sir.
Love the wonderful IQ, beautiful light,Very nice pose with prey in beak,colors ,details,perch,smooth BG and lovely composition.

Regards,
Satish.

The house wren looks awesome. Great head and body angle, nice seperation from the perch....the grub adds nice visual interest and color pop. Lest we forget how useful birds are in keeping the insect world in check, images like this can help us remember:w3. The perch looks familiar:S3:.....same one as the Eastern bluebird male image posted recently?

Great IQ & very well exposed. Like the pose & food item.

Lovely timing and a super pose, the right leg forwards, good eye contact and the caterpillar make the image. Regards the background I too frequently have problems with greens, I very often have to remove some yellow.

lovely pose with excellent details & comp. prey adds a lot to the image. would echo Doug's thought on the BG.

Agree with background being too uniform/sterile, but still a super sweet portrait of this wren, and I really like that caterpillar.

Hi Dan, excellent light and IQ, and just love the fat green grub. The perch has lots of character, and Im fine with the smooth BG.

Beautiful portrait, great details and sharpness.

This bird is in a cracking pose and looks as pleased as punch with it's food item. I always think it a bonus to have a nice clean background like this. Great sharpness, feather detail and light was nice as well Daniel.

Stunnig image!!!
Excellent details, great perch, very nice pose and the grub adds to an already excellent shot.
Very well done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shawn Zierman

The perch looks familiar:S3:.....same one as the Eastern bluebird male image posted recently?

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Great eye Shawn, and yes indeed. I was not planning on photographing near nest boxes that morning, and the only perch I could salvage from nearby surroundings without pruning perfectly fine trees was this one...which I carried with me from the wren box to the bluebird box. I've since gathered a selection of perches for use there.:S3:

Pretty much perfect for me ... nicely done, Daniel!

Very nice capture Daniel. Definitely one of the best shots of the species I have ever seen. Has everything going for it. Detail, color, great background, colorful prey item and a unique perch make for a great shot.
One of your best with your new rig.

A perfect image , composition , BG , IQ all look just perfect

man this is gorgeous! love the prey and the sweet light

Top notch, excellent set-up work, I like the graphical look of the clean background, the Wren position is excellent as the prey item and really nice lighting.

wonderful IQ, beautiful light,Very nice pose,BG and lovely composition.