Varied Thrush Male

As some of you know (from that "other" forum) the Varied Thrush is my favourite bird. Normally they are a somewhat difficult bird to photograph around these parts, but this year many more of them have come down from the mountain forests and are frequenting feeding stations. So with the generosity of my friend Mike Wooding, by allowing me to invade his backyard, I managed this setup at his feeder.

This species is a dark rainforest bird, and a difficult one to get out of the undergrowth and on to an open perch. So I wanted to do a setup that somewhat illustrated the the type of habitat they live in. I collected this moss that grows on tree branches with ferns growing out of it, and placed it on a perch beside the tray feeder. Unfortunately, I was not quite able to get the full scene in the frame so I had to take a couple more shots to get the ends of the ferns and add canvas to the left.

http://www.zuropak.com/forum-posts/V...hrush-175a.jpg

Nikon D700
Nikkor 500 VR
ISO 1250
1/125's
f/8
-0.3 EV
SB-900 for fill on subject and SB-600 for fill on BG

Lovely shot but I get the impression the bird is sharper than it really appears in the presented image?

Tim, I really like the lushness of the scene, good "environmental" portrait.

Looks plenty sharp to me. Excellent portrait of a very tough bird. The effort you put into your set up was very rewarding. I like the extra space too, as I feel we often get caught up in the tight portrait mode these days. Excellent flash work as well!

Tim, great stuff. I love to add some extra elements when I do bird setups too, so I love what you've done here. Nice use of off-camera flash too. Congrats on a really fine portrait of this beautiful bird.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

This is a really nice setup and shot Tim. For my information (I am still learning) why did you use such a

high iso with flash. Thanks

Jack

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jack williamson

This is a really nice setup and shot Tim. For my information (I am still learning) why did you use such a

high iso with flash. Thanks

Jack

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Hi and thanks Jack :)

The flashes were only used for a little bit of fill, so I wanted to have enough ambient light for the image to still look natural and give me a reasonable shutter speed. Also, the D700 at ISO 1250 is about the same as the D300 at ISO 250 when it comes to noise. So ISO 1250 allowed me to get a decent shutter speed in a dark area, and still be able to use a smaller aperture for a bit more DOF. If I shot at a lower ISO, I would have to open up to f/4.

Hi Tim, I like the overall colours on the thrush, and good job with the flash work. I do like the lush perch setup you have created for your subjects, and the BG is nice and smooth too.

Hey Tim, I've always admired your Varied Thrush images. Another nice one here. Lush setting as usual, and great work with the dual flashes. If pressed I'd prefer a tiny bit more room above, and a wee bit head turn our way.

Great work on the perch, it was all very much worth it from the looks of it:S3:

Awesome Tim!!!!