A Taste Of Honey

[PhilCook]

A semi set up shot of a Cresent Honeyeater feeding on a native Banksia flower. Semi set up meaning I found a Banksia bush with a couple of flower heads in nearby bushland, trimmed a few dead flower heads and branches away from one flower. Filled a squirt bottle with sugar/honey water mix and liberally sprayed the flower head with the mix. Came back the next day and squirted more sugar/honey
mix on the flower and stood back. Shortly after this bird and his girlfriend, who must of been watching came in to investigate and drink ...woot !

Not 100% happy with quality, particularly not keen on the shadowy backdrop on top .....but not worth tinkering further, and worth keeping a is I feel until something better occurs

Canon 7D + 500 f4....f5, 1/800, ISO 500, no flash, tripod mounted.........dull light sadly, cloned some leaves/twigs from bottom of image , selective shadow lightening and brightness tweak, selective sharpen and noise reduction

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice shot of this guy but I almost feel this should be posted in a Flora forum. That seed pod or flower thingy is huge and unfortunately I do feel it over powers the bird althoug I do like how he's holding onto it Nice clean bg too.

[Diane Miller]

Interesting and different! I don't mind the dark top at all -- it blends in with a very gradual gradient and makes the top part of the flower stand out, while the darker part of the bird's back and tail are against a lighter BG -- old portrait photography trick!

[Karl Egressy]

The perch looks a bit large but it is a very nice image none the less, Phil. Exposure is spot on, and the pose and detail are great.

[Troy Lim]

Wonder image, love the position of the bird. The oof leafs are a bit distraction.

[David Salem]

Great exposure and detail in this one Phil. The pose is very nice as it keeps the bird parallel to the sensor and focused well. I must agree that although the seed pod is unique and interesting, it is a bit overbearing. Well done.

[Greg Oakley]

Lovely image Phil - I agree that perhaps the flower is a little
large and a head turn would have been nice, but it's still a fine image,
Cheers Greg

[Sachin Saraf]

Very nice image...Love that dead flower and how bird is clinging to it, which also helped the vertical composition...Exposre and details are very good...Wish for slightly better head angle..TFS

[Shawn Zierman]

Beautiful bird, the plumage is neat, trim, and looks to be in excellent condition.
Loved the info included, and the role that you had in creating this image. I think it
works just fine as is, but would like to see what you would have come up with by
backing off the scene just a few feet to give you more depth of field, and a bit smaller
in frame look...Your critique of the light quality is surely too harsh...not too shabby at all imo.

[Jan Wegener]

striking image Phil, congrats!

[Colin Driscoll]

A typical Australian heathland scene well captured. Nature doesn't bother with niceties like proportion of bird to perch and banksia are an important natural nectar and pollen source for birds and small nocturnal marsupials. Also the animals are pollinators of the flower.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Lovely set-up with excellent pose & BG.

[Satish Ranadive]

Superb image.Beautiful colors,details and nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice! I like the pose and the flower. sharp details. good colors and contrast. I agree stopping down a bit more for more DOF would have been ideal.