Spot-breasted Scimitar Babbler

The spot-breasted scimitar babbler tests the photographer’s patience. It’s a skulker--ever close, ever so far away. Having observed this and other spot-breasteds, I realized that my bird was hiding not because it feared me, but simply because the spot-breasted operates best in thick brush. I reasoned, therefore, that because fear of the large animal stalking it wasn’t the issue, sooner or later this individual would pop out of the growth at close range. Sure enough, the babbler did just that. When he jumped onto the branch, I only had seconds to assess the situation and make my decisions. Shooting semi-automatic, I opted for f4. Why this wide aperture, despite my being only 7.5 m away from this medium-sized bird? I was hoping that the babbler would shift into full profile, and I was eager to avoid a busy background; the smooth greenness that you see here was only a meter or two behind the babbler. The babbler cooperated somewhat: With his tail still cocked right at me, he turned his head into profile. Depth of field, therefore, was no longer a problem on the head and mantle, and I had the smeared-out BG that I wanted. The full-frame rendition of this image is interesting, but the closeup works best. Not only does this version clearly illustrate why it’s called the “scimitar” babbler, but also one can see the uneaten leg of an insect still in my spot-breasted’s bill. I was driving along the amazing highway S217 in western Sichuan, China.

Device: Nikon D3S
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal Length: 600 mm
Aperture: F/4
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: None
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 2000
Metering Mode: Center-Weight
Subject Distance: 7.5 m
Photoshoppery: I cropped the original, noise-reduced my BG, sharpened my babbler.

Craig,

seems like tuff affair to give it a go for photography ...

beautifully captured. Might give a chance to vertical crop.

If horizontal i may clone two black lines on right and one bright grey coming straight into breast...

chopping off a little from top might not hurt IMO.

I love the outrageous indignant looking pose you captured! Wonderful fine feather details and color on the face. I agree with Mital's suggestion of trying a more vertical crop.

Thanks for the info on the situation and species. always a pleasure to read your accompanying text. I like the pose with a perfect parallel-to-the-camera HA angle (I also like the "mean" look). Nice details. BG looks great for being so near, but I would smooth out the pale OOF twig in lower right corner. I'm also wanting to see a bit more of the subject at bottom.

Craig:

Interesting story, love the head,detail, bug leg, sharpness.

I am sure you cropped as you did because of the limited DOF making the lower portion very blurry.

In the field, you make the best educated guess on how the shot will play out, and go with it. If he was more patient, a series with different f/stops so you could select the best DOF compromise later would have been nice.

Cheers

Randy