Oh, a puddle!

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Greetings. A shot out my home office window... rained last night..



D4 300f/2.8 + TC20EIII (600mm) 1/1000 f8 ISO2000 manual 50% crop - in shade with a little bounce light off the house
Painted a couple white leaves brown (from another leaf), Lifted some, nr, sharpening

A bit too centered but didn't see something obvious on the crop.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Phillips]

I like it. Who is it? I particularly like having the out of focus water drops flying everywhere.

[Randall Farhy]

Michael- incredible clarity of detail, especially since there's a 2x converter and 50% crop involved. Solid lighting, the image captures a moment and conveys it well. I like the oof droplets as they add dimension. The only changes I'd make would be to eliminate those grass spikes in the foreground, I find their color to be a distraction in that spot and change the aspect ratio for the crop-something like this (not knowing what the rest of the frame looks like).

[Clyde Hopper]

What a fun shot ! This Lil guy looks like it was taking a good splashing bath .Because of that I want to see More splash and less blur .I feel part of the story is muted .The rest of the story is clear .Fall leafs add to this IMO. Just one more opinion , I'm sure you will get more .
Clyde

[Jeannean Ryman]

What a cute little bird. I love to watch them bathe. :) I think the detail is wonderful and like the fall colored leaves too. I like Randall's crop. For me, it brings my attention more to the bird. It appears a bit dark on my monitor, so might try a slight shadow adjustment. Depends on the mood you're after though.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Michael....nice capture and I love the feather detail! If it were mine I would evict the bright orange leaf behing our friend....too distracting......I think i might also add a feathered dark vignette.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy, Randall, Clyde, Jeannean, Bob,

Thanks much for the comments. They are greatly appreciated and just what I wanted to hear about regarding crop and overall tone. I'll give your suggestions some thought.

This is what I think is a golden crowned sparrow who was completely without tail feathers. Don't know if that's just being a juvenile or an issue of some sort.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Michael, I really like the tones and colors of this one. The crop is pretty much academic. I tend to agree with your ID, but am curious about the tail feathers. Do you have an image that shows this? Is it possible that the feathers were just wet and looked like they weren't there?

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Kerry,

Thanks for commenting... much appreciated. Here's a shot of the missing tail:



It's so missing that I wonder if this is some deformity?

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kerry Perkins]

Well, that really is odd. Did you see this bird fly? I would be surprised if it could. Maybe John has some thoughts?

[Dan Brown]

This Golden-crowned Sparrow probably lost the tail due to a predator attack (cat, accipiter). I have seen many songbirds without tails and they seem to be able to fly just fine, even long-tailed species like the Yellow-billed Magpies. They probably loose a lot of maneuverability though.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Dan, Thanks for the explanation... there are a lot of neighborhood cats. This one could fly... no obvious difficulty, but I didn't see it fly far.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kerry Perkins]

I learn something every day on BPN! Thanks Dan.