Cardinal male

[Ivan Ellison]

Have just returned from your great country- 5 days in NYC- with a little bit of birding thrown in around central park. Not enough but that was not the purpose of the trip. My daughter now lives in Arizona with her husband and a few visits will be arranged over the coming years.
Could not believe how red these birds were until I saw them in the flesh. I found them hard to get the exposure right and a lot of soft/too dark shots were the result. Advice please as we do not have anything this red in UK.
Virtually full frame image. A shadow across face cloned out- just like UK in this respect, too many twigs and sun not in right place. Couple of oof twigs cloned from bg, image sharpened not much else done to it.
Canon 1DmkIV
Canon 100-400 set at 260mm
1/2000
f7
ISO 640.

[dankearl]

Very attractive photo, Ivan.
I like the dark treatment and BG.
I would clone out the seed out of the beak.

[P-A. Fortin]

The reds are stunning. I love it. The detail in this image makes me want to look at it over and over again. Was it the new 100-400 or the old one?

The seed also got my attention, so I guess I would agree with Dan's suggestion to clone it out.

[John Robinson]

Hi Ivan
We certainly get thwarted by reds like this over here !! I don't know these birds on hand, but looks OK to me. Looks lke you will have soe good hols coming up !!
Love the backdrop by the way ! Never noticed the seed ! They certainly are not very big !
Cheers
John

[Alan Murphy]

Nice detail and BG. Some fill flash to open the shadows would help. A less tight crop and a slight head turn would improve the image too IMO.

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image. Nice pose with beautiful crest. Superb details and exposure on reds.
I would lighten the eye. I tried.It looks nice.

Regards,
Satish.

[Ivan Ellison]

Thanks folks, for info it is the old 100-400 .

[adrian dancy]

Nice work Ivan. A bit of lightening up of the shadows will improve the image and a tad more space around.
I have had the opportunity to use Ivan's 100-400 lens. It is blisteringly sharp even wide open at 400mm.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the composition and the rich colours. I like Alan's idea of fill-flash, and I also agree with a better head turn towards us. Still a fine image, and I'm glad you enjoyed the birds from this side of the pond!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Ivan, just having the presence of mind... a little fill in would have been magic but nevertheless a great shot as is.