Black Redstart #2

[Michael F Milligan]

My second pic, but still the same species as the first. For those not familiar with Black Redstarts they are rare breeders in the UK and have a hankering for industrial sites. After the blitz in WW2 they found plenty of suitable habitat in the centre of London. Apart from this, they are cracking little birds, and when I get a male that will sit still for more than a second etc etc.

This was taken with Sony A57, which I've since upgraded. Small crop, bit of sharpening and some slight level adjust in Elements 11.

ISO400, f6.3, 1/200s, 500mm in the middle of summer just after midday.

Comments welcome

[Doug West]

Exposure looks great, the background is marvelous and the bird is nice and sharp.

The Head Angle Police are going to get you though for not having a better head
turn :)

When I'm shooting birds of this size, I'll rapid fire some shots because they do
move their heads so fast, increasing the chance of getting a better head angle.

I'm also thinking about cropping out some of the perch so it doesn't overwhelm
the Redstart too much.

Can't wait to see more.

Doug

[Michael F Milligan]

Exposure looks great, the background is marvelous and the bird is nice and sharp.

The Head Angle Police are going to get you though for not having a better head
turn :)

When I'm shooting birds of this size, I'll rapid fire some shots because they do
move their heads so fast, increasing the chance of getting a better head angle.

I'm also thinking about cropping out some of the perch so it doesn't overwhelm
the Redstart too much.

Can't wait to see more.

Doug

Thanks Doug! Yes the rapid fire was in full effect, but there are few usable shots of the bird as it generally sat facing away from me. I think there is just one other half decent version that I might put up to see if it can get past the Head Angle Police. ;-)

I left a fair bit of the perch in as I liked the colours of the timber against the colour of the bird. I'll trim it a bit later to see how it compares.

Cheers
Mike

[Doug West]

I agree about the colors of the timber. But if you do decide to try a crop...see that little white mark
on the timber? I wouldn't go any higher than that.

Doug

[adrian dancy]

Excellent with exposure and I like the colour of the background. If you had imaged the bird by stepping to the right a bit more the head angle may have been just fine.
It looks to me as though this is a juvenile Black Redstart. If the County Bird Recorder is not aware of breeding at the location I'm sure the recorder would like to know.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice shot of a cute bird! I'm not very lucky with head angles, either. It looks sharp and the BG is very nice, as said. I like the composition and colors.

I'm curious what camera you upgraded to.

Hope to see more images soon!

[Michael F Milligan]

Thanks all, so here is the cropped version for comparison.



Adrian, yes juvenile Black Redstart. All info to the recorder in place!

And Diane, A57 to A77. Made sense really!

[Diane Miller]

That sounds like an interesting camera. Looking forward to seeing images from it!

[Svante Larsson]

I really like the repost and I agree with the earlier comments made. Maybe however it would be possible to have a little bit more room in front of the bird (possibly also cropping just a tad behind it).

[Diane Miller]

I think the new crop feels a little crowded. The perch doesn't bother me, but one thing to try, just for comparison, might be to darken the bottom of it a little, with a gradient. Or crop just from the bottom. A little off the left could also be something to look at.