Eastern Kingbird

[Grace Scalzo]

From one of Long Island's last remaining grassland habitats. It is a constantly changing color palette with yellow now taking over from the early spring greens and golds.

1/1000, f10, iso800
Canon 1Dmk4, 500 f4 + 2x tele + blubb from car as blind.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Wow, wow, wow.
Crazy light, pose, details, bg, image design. You even got the perfect amount of head turn.
Incredible image, and with a 2x, no less.
I'm going to stare at this for a while.

[rajandesai]

Love it. I love to watch them hover in the meadow. Great light and nice flight pose. Well done.

[Doug Brown]

Wow Grace! Easily one of my all-time favorite photos of yours! You totally hit a home run with this frame! Sharp bird, gorgeous OOF BG, great pose, etc, etc. Just out of curiosity, why the f/10 aperture as opposed to a faster shutter speed?

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent IQ! right on the money. detail, light, HA and sharpness is superb. congrats

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you all for your kind words. Doug, it is a trade- off, but I find my 2x is sharper at f10 and above. I got lucky here.

[dankearl]

Grace, wow, just wow, this is just superb, light, focus, a bit of a head turn, wing position, on and on.
Very nice.

[Ofer Levy]

Pretty amazing image!! Congratulations!

[jack williamson]

Spectacular Grace! Everything about this is beautiful.

Jack

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful composition and striking IQ. Simply beautiful.

[Peter Scholer]

Wonderful image and such a magic background. The HA and wing in a down position is fantastic. Superb.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice flight pose and bg colours, Grace.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace - BRILLIANT!!! You have absolutely nailed this. The bird is tack sharp, good wing position, and against a colourful BG. Congrats on a fine image, and certainly one of your best to date.

[gail bisson]

Agree with all the kudos. You must have been thrilled to see this one on your LCD!
Love the light on the wings,
Gail

[PhilCook]

I'm very impressed with the sharpness of this one at only 1/1000 shutter speed....I bow my head in reverence lol

Beautiful wing/tail form and the yellow backdrop serves to make it stand out well

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Lovely on all fronts, amazing with 2x and this shutter speed, must have been panning perfectly.

Fine job!

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

Stunning image Grace! I like the wing position, HA, sharpness, BG and composition.

[Andrew Merwin]

Superlative image. It is nice to see a sharp image with the 500+2X tele. I have been less than successful so far with that combo. TFS.

[Sachin Saraf]

This is simply stunning capture Grace...Congratulations!

[Robert Holguin]

WoW!!!! Superb shot. Love the pose and background. Excellent detail and wonderful light.
Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Grace, this is absolutely breathtaking. You've truly outdone yourself with this one. The wing position, the head angle, the sharpness with a 2x, the view of the tail, the beautiful background. This just knocks my socks off. A huge congrats to you.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Without a doubt , one of your all time best!!!!!!!

[Gen Benjamin]

Wonderful image Grace, it's all been said with one exception, the only way I would improve on this would be to have been right next to you shooting! Fantastic image!
gen

[Dave Leroy]

Such a lovely photo. I really like the subtle head turn, details and "painterly" bg.

[Bill Dix]

I'm a little late joining the party, but wanted to add my congratulations. This is a superb shot. Great action, nice light, good techs. Perfect head turn. Very nicely done indeed.

[Rachel Hollander]

Grace - absolutely exquisite image. The detail is incredible. Where on LI did you shoot this? Big congrats on this one.

TFS,
Rachel

[Marina Scarr]

A top notch image in every respect. I am with you on at least F10 with the 2x. It lends itself to a much sharper image.

[christopher galeski]

its all been said,excellent image,well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you all so much for viewing my image and for your kind words. I liked this one when I took it and am glad you do too. (While I did choose the perch and backround, I had no control over the bird, and was glad it came together as so often it doesn't). For those who mentioned the 2x tele, this is the new one, considerably sharper than the old version at f 10 and higher. I use it probably 40% of the time when photographing birds.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wow Grace, this is pretty amazing. I can't add much to what has already been said, just glad I saw it!!

[Doug Brown]

For those who mentioned the 2x tele, this is the new one, considerably sharper than the old version at f 10 and higher.

Interestingly, the new 2x, when paired with the new 600mm version II, is no sharper stopped down that it is wide open; this holds true everywhere in the frame. Here's a comparison shot from my recent testing. Based on my findings, there's no need to stop down anymore (at least from a sharpness standpoint).