Bluetit

[William Dickson]

Canon 5D Mk3
f/4 500mm
f/4
1/2000
ISO 2000

This elderly lady who lives nearby was telling me about Bluetits nesting in her garden, and I offered to photograph them for her. She said. if you can get one leaving the nestbox that would be lovely. I agreed, and thought to myself 'this should be easy' When I arrived at her house that evening I saw the nestbox was attached to the side of the garage in her rear garden. The very bright setting sun was behind the box shining brightly into my face. I went in handheld thinking it was going to be easy Wow, those little guys were like bullets in and out. The box was well shaded and I knew I would require a fast shutter speed. Went back to the car, got my tripod, and after about an hour managed to get this shot. Printed it, and gave her the print next day. She was over the moon

Thanks for looking and for the comments on my Chaffinch

Will

[Ian Wilson]

Nice story Will. The bird looks a bit noisy especially on the wing and belly - some selective area NR should fix it. If you get the opportunity to have another go, some fill flash would be worth a try. Regards, Ian

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Can't you shoot with the sun behind you?
It looks like you really struggled to get anything with those settings. The noise is the big let down here.
I am sure you could get around it somehow by shooting a more ideal angle.
If you did NR on the BG, you could do some on the bird too.

I normally select the bird, copy to a new layer, then NR the BG and change the opacity on the bird only layer to taste. Helps a bit at times.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Will sorry buddy not one of your best I have to agree it looks a little noisy and the plumage detail isn't as clear as you recent images.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Will, I enjoyed the story and I can imagine this being quite challenging.
The forehead looks a bit hot on my monitor and the 5D3 should breeze through at ISO 2000 without much visible noise - possibly a processing issue?
Hopefully you'll get more invitations to photograph this nestbox.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments guys much appreciated :)

Will

[Ivan Ellison]

Agree with the others re noise, however not an easy shot to catch as they are super fast when entering and leaving the nest. You have to stay some distance from the box to avoid putting them off, so well done there, as so many people would put the shot first and not the birds welfare.
Do you have an extender which would give you more reach and thus some more detail with your lens and body.