Female Downy Woodpecker With Meal Close-up.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Seeing how unbothered they were with my presence I decided to try getting real close to photograph them with their prey items. It was a low success rate with low SS and such close subjects rendering the framing and critical sharpness rather difficult to achieve as they moved fast up the tree and quickly inside the hole to feed, but this time she paused just longer enough before entering to allow me at least one successful attempt . To me the claw was huge bonus!!

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/7.1, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, small crop top and right for comp but basically FF at just about MFD.

[WillieHall]

love the detail your exact focus brings out of this interesting bird. Well done, hand held at that speed! Her detail is especially highlighted with the nice light BG. This is the type of photo that inspires me to improve. I got one last week of a male Williamson's Sapsucker with a beak full of ants about to enter its nest and feed babies, but I missed the detail because of f/6.3....lots to learn.....thanks. Question: will you always get sharper images with that prime lens, rather than my 100-400 L lens on the same body?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Wow, this is a nice demo of "a mouth full"!

Feels as if I can touch the bird - excellent clarity, well done!

[Holger Leyrer]

Very nice close up.
I am sometimes wonder how can the birds hold so many insects in his beak?

[keith mitchell]

Daniel you really do get some excellent sharp detail and clarity, very impressive when hand held.

Keith.

[Daniel Cadieux]

love the detail your exact focus brings out of this interesting bird. Well done, hand held at that speed! Her detail is especially highlighted with the nice light BG. This is the type of photo that inspires me to improve. I got one last week of a male Williamson's Sapsucker with a beak full of ants about to enter its nest and feed babies, but I missed the detail because of f/6.3....lots to learn.....thanks. Question: will you always get sharper images with that prime lens, rather than my 100-400 L lens on the same body?

Thanks a bunch guys!!

Willie, the super teles are the sharpest lenses in Canon's arsenal and are unbeatable in that aspect (they are also unbeatable as far as how expensive they are!!)...but the 100-400L should give you excellent results too. I've only been using the 500 for a little over a year and was using the 100-400 for years before that as my workhorse lens and loved the results I had with it.

[David Salem]

Great look at a full beak of insects. Amazing how they can catch one after another and slide them to the back of their beak and catch more without dropping the first ones. Details and exposure look great. Well done Daniel

[arash_hazeghi]

I love the mouthful of food! great close up Dan.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Super image Dan, nicely exposed, superb detail, sharp and the mouthful of food is a big bonus!