Blue Jay

[Alan Murphy]

Blue Jay

Spring, TX

D800, 85MM, ISO 200, f14, 1/125. Flash @ 1/16 power.

Two years ago, I bought a Phototrap and put it away in a drawer. This week, I finally got it out and started to play with it in my yard. My technique was very similar to a hummingbird multi-flash setup. I used a 3 by 4 foot print for the background with two flashes to light it up. I used a small narrow feeder to control the landing flight path. The phototrap trigger beam was set up to fire once the bird left the feeder. Two more flashes lit the bird. The whole image is lit with flash as main. I'll go into more detail and show set up images along with more results in my next newsletter.

[Doug Brown]

Pretty spectacular Alan!

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Alan! I like the wing position, HA, IQ, BG and composition.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Just gorgeous Alan! Looking forward to the newsletter.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is superb!

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Outstanding stuff! Alan, 85mm? May I know which lens you used. Your technique is superb!

[John Robinson]

All been said.
JR

[Joe Murphy]

What a fantastic result Alan, did it take many shots to get this one?

[gail bisson]

Love the wing spread, HA and the colors.
Looking forward to reading your newsletter,
Gail

[keith mitchell]

Alan the whole thing looks great to me.

Keith.

[Alan Murphy]

Outstanding stuff! Alan, 85mm? May I know which lens you used. Your technique is superb!

Thanks Sanjeev, I used the Nikkor 85mm 1:1.4D.

[Alan Murphy]

What a fantastic result Alan, did it take many shots to get this one?

It took a bunch of frames to figure out the lag time from the trigger beam to the camera lag, and also to find the exact point of focus. Once that was figured out, it took a bunch of frames with wings closed, head turned away etc before I got a keeper. Fun stuff.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent set up and excellent flight pose at 1/125 ss. Beautiful colors, nice details ,great BG and composition.
Love the HA with open beak and feathers on wing and tail. Very nice use of flash,though I did not understand it.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Alan, excellent set up, and an even better flight pose. I really the colours, and you nailed the sharpness nicely. Well captured.

[Richard Flack]

Awesome, awesome image Alan. Wow! You have really inspired me with your images and methods. I would love to spend time with you in the field. Pity that my time in North America is usually fairly short-lived and family-packed. TFS

[vishaljadhav]

Alan ,

Plan to hold a workshop here in India, i am in even can arrange everything for you

This is Perfect

[Andrew Merwin]

Superlative. Great wing position & HA. Thanks for sharing your technique for getting the image.

[Holger Leyrer]

Fantastic Image.

[shane shacaluga]

Superb. Really looking forward to the newsletter

[Greg Basco]

Very cool, Alan. Good use of the multi-flash setup, and the result looks really nice.

Cheers,
Greg