The recent snowstorm brought 2 unusual individuals to my yard today - a Gray-crowned & a Black Rosy Finch. I photographed from an open window, using the window frame as support. Although I was only 5 feet from the finches, it was very difficult to get the birds in focus since there was a constant veil of snowflakes between the camera and the birds. This is one of the better images. I especially like that it is easy to compare the 2 different species.
I am in northern Colorado, at 8,000 ft, waiting for spring!
Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 300 f4 L IS, 1/800, f5, exp. comp. +1 1/3, ISO 800.
I like the snow, matching poses, overall exposure. You may be able to tease out a bit more detail from the snow. If you have color efex pro, the detail extractor could help there.
The grasses on the right are a bit distracting against the snow, and I might try a version without, to see how it strikes you.
It snowed here yesterday, but today the peepers came out for the first time, high around 60s. Hurray for springtime.
Randy, I would love to lose the grass, but don't think I have enough to repair the tail. I'll run the image through detail extractor and see what happens to the snow.
I worked on the suggestions you made Randy. Surprisingly I think I was able to make the tail repair passable. Using detail extractor did find more snow detail, but it was pretty gray and more like blobs. I reduced the effect in front of the birds, but left the added detail below the birds. Your suggestions gave me the extra incentive to work on that tail & grasses. Thanks!
Thank you, Tim. I was thrilled to have the Rosies show up. This is only the 4th time for a Gray-crowned in my yard, and the 1st for the Black Rosy, in the 6 years I've been here.
A sig. improvement to my eyes. Yes, the detail extractor can easily be overdone, but i like where you ended up. There is enough texture around the birds to help ground/anchor the image better.
Gray-crowned & Black Rosy Finches
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