RB Nuthatch bathtime

[Jim Thomas]

I set my popup blind right next to my backyard waterfall since it's a hotspot and I love watching bathing birds. I also installed a bunch of cool perches for a variety of photo ops. Seems everyone heads straight for the rocks and waterfalls completely bypassing my perches. I would love to freeze some of the bathing action but I think it would require a flash of some sort, so right now I must content myself with the still moments in between spastic bath moments.

Thanks for looking,
Jim

Sigma 150-500 at 500mm, f6.3, 320/sec, iso 800.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

I have a small pond with waterfall outside my office window, and love to watch the birds bath, they often put on quite a show. For a created setting, I think it is successful, with the greenery helping the setting look more natural.

The birds placement in frame is good, like his head up position. He appears just slightly soft, but it is always a challenge to get a wet bird looking sharp.

I would suggest just firing away when they start bathing, as the flying water and motion blur can work well if you manage to get a sharp enough eye/head.

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

The setting is a bit cluttered for my tastes. The trick for the bathing images is to arrange the set-up so that you have all water foreground and all water background. Not easy but well worth it. Ditto Randy's comments.

What is the red stuff on the rock?

[Jim Thomas]

This is pretty much as natural as it gets. The waterfall ledges are builtt into a natural rock outcropping and has been there for close to 20 years so it's full of moss and critters. I'm not quite understanding how this could be considered even slightly soft as it looks sharp at 200% (original) unless you mean the very tip of the beak which i know is off abit and was wondering how to fix.

Thanks again,
Jim

Jim:

I have a small pond with waterfall outside my office window, and love to watch the birds bath, they often put on quite a show. For a created setting, I think it is successful, with the greenery helping the setting look more natural.

The birds placement in frame is good, like his head up position. He appears just slightly soft, but it is always a challenge to get a wet bird looking sharp.

I would suggest just firing away when they start bathing, as the flying water and motion blur can work well if you manage to get a sharp enough eye/head.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Thomas]

Funny, when I posted this, I thought "Mr. Morris isn"t going to like my background". I have to admit though that I'm not a big fan of the smooth backgrounds, which in many cases look really flat to me. With this image I even tried playing with the background, cloning the pink areas over the other areas and then adding a gaussian blur to smooth it all out, but then it just looked wierd, so i went back to the original. I don't know, I just like being able to tell that there are rocks and moss there. I can't really do much about arranging the set up as it's pretty much a permanent feature in the landscape. The red thing is a maple flower and i thought it might be a distraction'
Thanks,

Jim

The setting is a bit cluttered for my tastes. The trick for the bathing images is to arrange the set-up so that you have all water foreground and all water background. Not easy but well worth it. Ditto Randy's comments.

What is the red stuff on the rock?