I never thought I'd be so excited at the thought of a crow image, but when I saw this scene unfolding I knew the potential and went to work. I had to move around quite a bit, on a hill to boot, to get the whole scene in the frame without obstructing branches creeping in plus aligning myself with the fall foliage. Thankfully the crow was hard at work and I was able to manoeuvre for the best vantage point. When I saw the image on my computer I let out a "woohoo"...not something normally reserved for this species.
As you can see it was raiding a hornet's nest, first digging/ripping a hole near the top (you can see the gap just below the crow's right foot) and then plucking them out of the nest one by one (you can see one in the bill). The cold temperature of just couple of degrees above freezing kept the hornets in a calm state so the crow was not bothered by an angry swarm. Quite the opportunist!
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/160s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, FF, a couple of branches cloned out at frame edges, eye work on the crow (darken pupil, lighten iris, a branch tip coming sticking above the neck cloned out.
That is cool! I have photographed several nests like this, but never with a bird on top and never this uncluttered. The colorfull bg adds a lot. Great image, Daniel!
Cool capture Daniel. Not often you get a crow in a good setup but this is great. The nest has so much nice texture and the red maple leaves on it really add allot to the frame. The profile pose with the grub in the mouth and the colorful fall colors look great. Well done.
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I love the image. Nice exposure and detail on the crow. The yellow out of focus leaves in the background and the red leaves near the nest are nice fall colors. Smart crow to know the hornets were too cold to do much. Thank you for sharing.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
How cool is that! Great shot Daniel! I love the colors in the OOF BKG and the reds in the FG. I also love the textures of the hornet's nest and a great job exposing the crow, you brought out nice detail.
Holy Crow That is a Big Hornet's Nest!
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