Juvenile Red-Headed Woodpecker with some Red Comin in
Canon 1D Mark IV
500mm +1.4x
Wimberley/Gitzo
from a blind
ISO 1000
1/320 sec
f/5.6
Taken a few days ago not far from Buffalo, NY, right on Lake Ontario. My in laws discovered they had a nesting pair of RHW a couple months ago. Finding this species in New York is a pretty rare and exciting thing. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to get shots of them when they were at the nest, climbing a ladder up a nearby tree, and then resorting to strapping my camera with the 400mm on it and using a remote trigger, when they seemed unnerved by my presence (even though the tree was at least 50 feet from the nest tree). Now the juvies are out and about. I have decided these woodpeckers--at least this family--are diabolically furtive, and despite using a blind now near the feeders, they seemed to be very wary of me even when I sat in there for a long time without stirring, and wouldn't return to the feeders till I had left (though of course they were perfectly happy to all be just a few yards away from my mother in law while she has sat out on her back deck talking on the phone in the wide open, during the last couple weeks--arrggghhh). But they wanted nothing to do with me. And yes, the blind had been up for weeks. Maybe I should have had someone go in with me and then leave. Ah well. I did have about 10 minutes my first morning with this juvie as it perched on the top of this dead snag, and was lucky to capture some portraits of it before it got spooked by the sound of my camera and took off. I also managed to photograph it catching a bee before it left, which I may share here sometime.
Have other people found red-headed woodpeckers to be hard to photograph? Just wondering. I remember I had found one in Fort Myers, FL last winter, and it was very expert at keeping a tree in between me and it, couldn't get a good pic.
I cropped quite a bit to showcase this juvenile's beautiful fresh plumage. Did some darkening of the tree but don't know if it was enough. Just don't want it to look unnatural, which it might if I go darker. I think my favorite part of this is the view of the red coming in around the eye and at the base of the bill. Sharpening, NR, and I cloned out some whitish spots on the right where the sky was peeking through the foliage.
Thank you for looking and for any comments and critiques.
Last edited by Melissa Groo; 08-31-2013 at 06:19 PM.
Your hard work paid off here! very nice wood pecker, yes, the red around the eye looks cool. For me there is too much space above so I would crop a bit more there. Very sharp and with nice soft light.
What an attractive young woodpecker you have here!
Beautiful muted color.
You worked hard for this, I think the crop minimizes the angle but just a bit higher in the frame for me also.
Maybe a bit of blur on the BG?
I have never seen the redheaded at this stage of growth and it is very beautiful and quite interesting how the red starts to develop. Your repost works better for me and I think you got some great detail on the bird. My only other suggestion would be to be to tone down the bright green behind the birds face/bill.
The repost works very well, nice and sharp, love the red beginning to show. I have those birds here for the summer and they eventually get used to me and will come to the seed. I have not seen one for about two weeks now, seems they have migrated south.
Ha ha, I like your story...especially the part about your mother in law on the phone with the birds a few feet from her after you've tried your best to get close to no avail!! I've had some similar stuff happen to me so I can relate I like seeing the individual at this stage in plumage. I like both posts overall, but in both I feel that pointing your lens more to the left would have been beneficial.
Thanks all. Daniel, I actually did point my lens to the left quite a bit more. I cropped that off for my OP as I felt the lightness of the tree was pretty distracting.
Juvenile Red-Headed Woodpecker with some Red Comin in
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I like seeing the individual at this stage in plumage. I like both posts overall, but in both I feel that pointing your lens more to the left would have been beneficial.
