Northern Cardinal

[Barry Ekstrand]

Seen while out on a walk in Kingwood, Texas.

Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 400mm f5.6L lens
ISO 800, f5.6, 1/1600 sec
~60% crop

Some clean up of the bill and work on the background done.

Any and all comments appreciated.

[Richard Unsworth]

Red is very good indeed, exposure, details fine. Angle a little steep but its where he was.
Can see as a vertical, I would remove top branch to review once cropped. Also take out straggly sticks to left.

[Grace Scalzo]

I like how he's clinging to that small branch. Good suggestions given my Richard. My biggest suggestion would be to try for more eye-level angles. Pointing the lens upward at a bird (unless you are far back and can reduce the angle of declination) creates an unpleasing angle. I often struggle with the reds in cardinals and you did well. Post some more!!

[Marina Scarr]

Would have been a more pleasing image with less angle as Grace suggested. Exposure and colors look good. Like seeing this guys little talons wrapped around the perch.

[Barry Ekstrand]

Thank you Richard, Grace, and Marina for the comments and encouragement. I understand the angle comment but am afraid the real answer is to get a longer lens so I can be farther away, have a better angle, and more of the uncropped photo with the bird image. Currently the 400mm f5.6L is the longest I have but I'm not likely to step up to something bigger for awhile yet. Probably I need to work on my stealth, that certainly would be cheaper.

I've been too far away with many of my shots and had to crop way in to get the bird to a decent size in the photo, then often have had an image left that was not of optimal quality. In this case the cardinal was closer to me, in the lower branches of the tree, and I took what I could get while he was there. I think the quality of the image of the bird is better as a result of my being closer.

On the background, I will try the suggestions and see how well I do. Thanks again for the comments, they are much appreciated.

Barry

[Grace Scalzo]

Hi again, Barry. One of our moderators, Daniel Cadieux, shoots with a 100-400 and his work is just outstanding. Don't let focal length limit you. Follow him....his ability to get close to birds and obtain great images with a max focal length the same as your is inspiring.