American Goldfinch feeding

[Grace Scalzo]

This was taken under most difficult shooting conditions the wind was blowing at about 12mph and gusting even higher. The light was so lovely that I stuck it out and ended up with a couple. The berries on this plant are attractive to finches, you can see some of the sap from them on his breast feathers and face.

1/1600, f 5.6, iso800
Canon 1Dmk4, 500 f4 + 1.4tc

[Alan Murphy]

Love the light, perch and the feeding adds a lot.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

What a shot, Grace. light is indeed great. terrific composition and BG. Details look very very good. Good call on the techs..can't take the risk with SS in windy conditions. Size and placement of the bird could not have been better.

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Lovely light, weather difficulties well handled, like the fluffed up pose and feeding activity.

From a comp. standpoint, in a perfect world would prefer the perch not run out of the frame edge above, tends to lead the eye out of the frame a bit, but overall very strong as is.

Cheers

Randy

[PhilCook]

Nice comp on the seed heads, I confess to not being quite so keen of the strong orange tones, but totally just personal opinion...lovely shot especially considering the windy conditions

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Love the light, very nice pose, nice details, and great background.
You handled the harsh conditions very well.
Well done.

[Shawn Zierman]

The intensity and the warmth of color is really nice here.
That, coupled with the behavior and natural history aspect to the image
make it quite appealing. You achieved some great dof at f5.6 with the 1.4 on too.
I like the fluffed up look to the finch.

[David Salem]

Great light on the subject and the scene is exposed very well. Perfect comp, perch and complementary BG make for a beautiful scene.. Nice work...

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent light, details and bg.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank everyone. Randy, I mostly post images here that contain something that I am uncertain about, and I hope to draw out opinions without giving it away. You nailed it here with regard to the diagonal branch exiting the frame. In the original capture, it does not. I trimmed a bit from the top to move the bird higher in the frame and then a smidge from the left to balance. I'll revisit this, thanks.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely light, nice comp on this rotund little fellow. I personally don't mind the diagonal stem as posted.

[Karl Egressy]

Love the light, pose, perch and composition, Grace. The great light is the strongest point of this image.