The Veery is a member of the thrush family and loves to spend its' time on the forest floor and is very retreating. Just like most of the thrushes, this guy's song is quite ethereal! It did not take long to figure out this guy was posing in a more erect fashion, so this is an original vertical comp.
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, some parts of perch slightly darkened, slight dodging of the undertail coverts, darkened pupil. Audio.
What a beautiful pose he gave you. And lovely background. We had an influx of these elusive guys in our woods a few weeks ago, probably working their way up to you. But I never got a shot of one.
I looked at this image overall and tried to establish what makes it so attractive to me...I think it is the eye, and then everything else that leads to it. Apart from the eye (sharp, dark, alert) everything else is soft, and by saying this I do not mean unsharp, since no detail is lost. Soft colours on the bird (the browns and the whites), soft background (colourful yet not too much to distract one from the subject). Daniel, this is -I believe- what makes a great image. I would have probably burnt the spots on the bird, darkened the perch, I would have done too much. I have learnt a great deal by just looking carefully at this photograph, and I thank you for this post.
Beautiful image of the erect posture, i love the details and the stance
i love the soft feathers texture on the belly and above of the bird, smooth BG too
Sure wish we had forests to stomp around in and look for beautiful little birds like this one. I remember from my childhood how nice spring was in Ottawa. The Thrush looks great with lots of detail and I like the erect pose. Exposure is spot on. Well done
Very Nice Dan, do you have any tips on using audio with these guys? do they go right to the call or do you place it off to the side?
I am planning on heading up north to shoot them soon.
Corey, these guys love the forest floor and you will have better luck setting up on a log close to the ground (it's hard to tell here, but this fella is only about 8 inches off the ground). Here the speaker is in front of the log and to our right, but if you want a more parallel pose try an horizontal log with the speakers place on the ground near one of the ends. Keep in mind this does not guarantee success...not every bird is cooperative!
Veery.
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