Best of the Lot...

Went to Little St. Simons Island off the coast of GA. Painted Buntings were sparse and wary... I stood at the feeders for probably 20 hours over three days. This was the best I could do. I decided to head home early but left my camera up while I was packing. A friend happened by, saw a perfect male on the perch, and took four images with my 40D, one of them perfect with a lovely green background and perfect body and head angles. You gotta love it or else you would jump off a bridge.

I will be on a Zegrahm's Wild Britain Cruise (with world renowned seabird expert--he wrote the book-Peter Harrison--for almost three weeks and then on to Bonaventure for gannets, something I have always wanted to do. Will be back in the office on about 21 June. Not much internet access at all except for one night in Orlando and two nights in Montreal. I will miss hanging out here and will miss all the great images and great folks.

Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with 1.4X II TC and EOS 40D. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/100 sec. at f/5.6. Fill flash at -1 1/3 stops.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Where are the techs? Looks like you got good DOF in the bird - very sharp - so interested in the aperture used. I like the dull gray BG and perch as it really accentuates the bird's colors.

RAM, Forgot the techs but added them in before I saw your post <smile>

d-o-f was adequate: f/5.6 with the 1.6 camera... Amazing. Perch is some type of rotting palm stump.

The bg really makes the bird stand out. An excellent image.

I like how the bunting stands out from the neutral grayish tones of the bg and perch. The perch is unusual to me and has a pleasing texture too.

the bg is so neutral that you could almost make it black and white to make the bird pop even more!! nice job. i like the old palm stump for the perch. looks great!!

yessir....that bunting is really set off by the soft matching hues in the bg.

Have a good trip.......be safe!

Quite nice. Travel safely, we'll miss you, will look forward to images from your trips.

Stunning Artie !!!! Beautiful color and detail on the bunting and the BG and perch really makes this image outstanding. Love it !!!

Wonderful image! I like the perch, and it pops against that great looking background! nice eye contact and the colors are stunning! a big # 1 on my want list!

Very nice setting and capture with wonderful color. I'd suggest a slightly tighter crop. The background is great, but there is a little too much of it.