Dipper

[Ivan Ellison]

Managed a few hours with some dippers yesterday. I think they are great birds and often overlooked. Hoped the evening sun would be perfect but as I arrived it went behind some cloud never to return. The perch is one I placed myself on their flight path back to their nest. making sure they were both well away as I waded out to position the branch.
On leaving I moved the branch so as not to encourage any unwanted attention - I fell over into the river and got a good soaking, had to drive home with some over-trousers on. Will take a better wading stick next time and waders instead of wellies.
Cropped to about 70% of orig. Lightened a little but not too much as the bird is quite dark. Sharpened, noise reduced and a little to clarity in ACR. Sharpened again in PSE10 for web.
Canon 1D mkIV, Canon 500 f4 is + 1.4 conv. tripod.
1/400 sec
f 5.6
ISO 1000

[Randy Stout]

Ivan:

Glad you didn't get washed down stream! Some of the dipper pictures I have seen have been near very fast water!

I like the colors, exposure and sharpness here. ice pose, with good head angle, food item, all good.

I would consider cloning a bit of moss onto the broken end of the perch, I gave it a go and thought it looked more 'natural'.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Fine detail and exposure, good idea to place the perch, soon as I saw the broken part fist thing I thought was clone or patch some moss there - I have done it myself many times!
Good to see the larvae in the bill and a nice head angle too - well done.

[Ivan Ellison]

Thanks guys, the branch snapped off on the way to the stream. I will do a little cloning and see how it looks.

[Karl Egressy]

The pose is very nice, the detai in the bird is exceptionally good.

[gail bisson]

I don't mean to sound like a broken record but I agree about the broken stem.
These birds look very difficult to expose for properly and I think the overcast sky would help in avoiding blowing out the whites.
Very nice shot with excellent exposure and prey in the mouth.
I would do some more NR to the BG
Gail

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,good exposure,nice pose,agree with others about broken stem.

[PhilCook]

Extra nice one, maybe the best of these birds I've seen, sharp and HA is good, the bugs in beak really add a lot too...green perch adds a nice mix of color ....I might also consider another round of noise reduction to backdrop

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colors.

[adrian dancy]

This is superb Ivan! the broken branch is a bit of a let down but easily cured.

Sorry you fell over...isn't that the kind of thing I do. I must be rubbing off on you:)

I do not think the noise is that bad at all . Nothing worse than a background that has a polished like appearance in contrast to the subject matter.