Western Tanagers are not rare here in the Pacific Northwest, but are rarely seen, hiding out in the fringe. Much to my surprise there was a gaggle of them way down in the gully beside my house yesterday in the Dogwood trees. It was a gray and overcast afternoon.
I photographed them with my D3 / 300 2.8 + 2xTC / tripod combination from my driveway.
Post processed in Camera Raw by increasing temperature, blacks and exposure just a tad to compensate for the overcast, then cropped and focused in CS3.
Comments more than welcome, especially regarding post processing steps - Thanks, Bob
Model: NIKON D3
FocalLength: 600.0mm
FocalLength35efl: 600.0mm (35mm equivalent: 600.0mm)
SensingMethod: One-chip color area
ISO: 200
ExposureTime: 1/320"
Aperture: F5.6
MaxAperture: F5.7
ExposureBiasValue: 0
ExposureProgram: Aperture-priority AE
MeteringMode: Multi-segment
Flash: No Flash
WhiteBalance: As Shot
ImageSize: 880x800
I don't mind the idea here of showing this marvelous bird in situ, however, to work, the head angle and sharpness of the bird needs to be much better. Never seen a Western Tanager before- another "holy grail" bird in the east!
It's always tough photographing birds against an overcast sky. For me, there's too much environment and not enough bird in this photo. The environment itself is a little busy and tends to draw attention away from the bird. Speaking of the bird, John makes some excellent points regarding it's issues with focus and head turn. Thanks for posting.
Western Tanager
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