Love is in the Air- Blue Birds

[Amol Khedgikar]

Blue Bird feeding its mate.

A lot of work done on the male since it was hidden behind a thick twig. Didnt want to waste this shot as I got the female in a perfect position. so a lot of reconstruction work on the male. Everything else pretty much the same, almost as shot.

7D, 500 F4 +1.4x, ISO800, 7.1, 1/200. Flash @ 1/4 EV- 0

I am tempted to make a close crop with the horizontal version. I will post that later to get your thoughts

[gail bisson]

I can see why you like the pose but the image has several issues.
I think you need more noise reduction on the BG.
The reconstruction on the male is pretty good but still obvious.
I would clone out the OOF branch sticking out behind the females' tail.
You needed a lot more DOF .
I like the colors and the action depicted and am sure you can get a cleaner shot next time,
Gail

[Amol Khedgikar]

HI Gail,

Thanks for the excellent critique, On my monitor the NR looked good but I now see what yo mean here.

The Female's blurred left wing looks like a OOF branch. She was flapping wildly just before the male landed with the food. Thats how I stopped to take a shot when I was going to the front of her to shoot her from front. thats why the DOF stayed at 7.1 didnt know the male was coming , this was an unexpected bonus.

I will do the NR and repost.

Thanks again.

[Diane Miller]

Maybe some technical issues, but what a moment caught!!

[Loi Nguyen]

Great capture! Love the female wide open mouth waiting. Would love to see the original as well. Thanks.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Your timing was great and you managed some good head angles. The unfortunate technical things would inspire me to go out and nail if next time