Downy Woodpecker

[David Salem]

This is another first species for me. Captured this at Morton NWR in Long Island, New York on my Christmas trip to see the inlaws. Hooked up with BPN member Grace Scalzo for a few productive hours of great shooting, conversation and nice light.

1DMKIV---500mm---f7.1---ss1/800---ISO800---HH@9:00am---20% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. Appreciated

David

[Julie Brown]

Hi David. You did have lovely light-the tones and colors are wonderful. Very nice framing IMO. I like the amount of detail in the bird and the perch.

[Marina Scarr]

Super image, David. Exposure is spot on and love all those details in the face feathers and it's nice to see the talons gripping. The perch and BG are just right.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

I like the framing and the crop, also the diagonal that the branch makes. But the head angle could be better, and at least to me the branch is sharp but a lot of the bird - particularly the head, back and breast, is soft - probably oof, since the focus point seems to be on the feet or the tail tip. Nice to see the small bill and the 2 black spots on the outer tail feathers, which help to distinguish this from Hairy.

Richard

[Diane Miller]

Love the colors, perch, details and pose. Probably something else, too, that I'm forgetting to mention.

I'm on my laptop and can't decide if the contrast is just a little low, but I wouldn't want to destroy the subtlety.

[Alan Murphy]

The graduated BG sets off the bird nicely. Nice clean plumage on this guy. Well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the angled perch, details, exposure and BG. Well done David!

[dankearl]

Nice pose and perch David, I too, think it could use a bit more sharpening on the back of the bird.

[Troy Lim]

Nice composition, the HH probably was the cause of the softness on the bird. Perch looks sharper than the bird which probably explains there might have been slight movement on the bird or from HH.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent details, backgrund and I like the slanting trunk as a perch, David.

[David Salem]

Oops, I forgot to add sharpening for the web. The original is pretty sharp. Hope this is better. I always worry with this type of feather detail getting crunchy. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Grace Scalzo]

Somewhere, this past winter, I lost that perch. Darn it! Your image is lovely, sweet bird with a nice background. Agree, it was a nice morning.

[jack williamson]

The original looked good, the repost is just right. Exposure and perch and bg are excellent, sharpening really finished this.

[Steve Wasson]

Nice job on the repost, David!

[MohsenVahedipour]

What a nice soft light & composition! Excellent pose & IQ. TFS

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful perch and nice composition.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is one sweet Downy WP image! Both blacks and whites look good, and the perch / BG look great. I would prefer a tad more room above but certainly OK as is too.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Sweet light and cute bird. The exposure couldn't be any better - love the details in both the dark and the light areas. The bg is excellent and the slanted perch works well.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, excellent exposure on this fellow, and I like how the woodpecker is looking up the line of the perch. Great view of the feet/claws, and the additional sharpening in your repost has turned out well. Well captured.

[David Salem]

Thank you very much everyone for all the comments and input, greatly appreciated.

David