Letting loose......

A Red Winged Blackbird letting loose with that classic trill. Being a nature/bird lover my entire life, I was so excited when I finally got my first "decent" pair of binoculars. They really brought the plumage textures, colors and behaviors to life. I spent years birding wishing I could "capture" and save what I was seeing in the binos. This simple behavior by this relatively plain bird is one of the first things I dreamed of catching when I first began making images of birds! My first "rig" was a zoom instamatic camera (just 4 years ago) and one of my first tries was to catch a RWB in their familiar call. I did catch it "very poorly" but was sooo excited the first time!!!! I have caught a few such shots with my next rig 10D/100 - 400 but this is my first with my new rig 1dmkII 400DO. This was made at Green Cay. F9@1/640 ISO 200.

I like everything about this, Dave...the pose, the perch, the bg sky. The exposure on the blacks and the red...sweet shot!

The EXP is good and you have captured the peak of action. The big problem is that the bird is well above your position; as a result the fluffed body feathers are covering up the flared epaulets. Now get out there and find one at eye level.

later and love,

artie

OK, I'm on it!!!! I do love to catch them at eye level, especially on a reed!!!!! As always, thanks for the helpful suggestions!!!!!!

Well, you did capture the behaviour you wanted perfectly - just too steep an angle. I'm sure you'll get other opportunities!

You caught a beautiful singing pose and I really like the leafy perch and clean blue bg. The exposure is good, with detail in the blacks. A little lower angle on the next one will make the shot you have envisioned even better as mentioned above. But I have to say that I admire your desire to capture the image you want, and I can identify with your feelings of capturing the beauty of the birds you love. Thanks for sharing!