These two young Western Bluebirds landed on this Mountain Ash branch (a set up placed near a water source) and had to try the berries to see if they were ripe (they were not). Cropped about 5% from top and right.
Nikon D3S, 500mm f4 plus 1.4 converter for 700 mm
ISO 1000, f7.1, 1/800 sec
Manual Exposure
An impressive image! Birds look great - sharp with excellent detail. Not crazy about the perch though - a bit too busy. Would prefer a more simple and less dominant look.
Hi Laurie,
You really nailed this one1 I love it.
Both birds are tack sharp and I like the perch and that pop of red provided by the berries. Excellent IQ
Lovely BG.
If I was to be really nitpicky I would wish that the leaf in RLC was not there.
Well done!!
Gail
I'm not a fan of set-ups, Laurie, but I like what you've done here. I like the busy-ness very much and the birds are terrific...to my eye this is a good-natured and humorous image! Plenty to like here...
I think the perch is fine in terms of how busy it is, but it seems unbalanced to me. I'd have gone with more leafage to the right rather than removing the left, personally. But don't make it obviously symmetrical.
At the moment the perch seems like it doesn't know if it's trying to be a bare branch or a homely bough.
Do you photograph this kind of setup often, or was it a one off?
I have photographe juvenile blue birds often and I wanted to get them on something other than a bare perch. I chose Mountain Ash because it is a natural perch for them that I hoped would get me some interaction between the birds. I used a couple of Mountain Ash perches - the other one did not have the moss and had lots of berries. This was the only one that two blue birds landed on and most of the berries had already been picked off before they landed.
Lovely and sharp, Laurie. For my taste a simpler perch would be preferable. If mine I would darken down the brighter areas of BG a little. The berries and interaction are great.
Hi Laurie, I like how both Bluebirds are facing each other, both sharp, with excellent detail. I like the BG, and Im actually fine with the perch in your OP.
Wonderful image, engaging on several levels, technically solid.
The OP was A-OK with me, just in regards to light quality, a little
fill flash would have been optimal imo to even out some of the
contrasty shadows caused by the slightly harsh light source...
I like the cleaned up perch but more space as you have in the OP. (don't you love getting a ton of varying opinions?) I think it's a very special capture, just beautiful, love the colors, the poses of the birds facing each other, and the berries.
I like the images and the reposts. What strikes me the most is the interaction between the birds. That draws my eyes and so the business of the perch is less noticeable than it would normally be.