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Thread: Try not to sing with a mouthful!

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    Default Try not to sing with a mouthful!

    Still working through my shots from my trip up north. Caught this Song Sparrow with his breakfast, or maybe his brood's breakfast in morning sunlight. Very little done other than cropping, bringing down the lights on the rock and a bit of blur to the BG. Canon T3i, Tamron 150-600mm, 600mm, HH, ISO 800, f/10, 1/1000.

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    BPN Member Sandy Witvoet's Avatar
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    That certainly is a mouthful!!! Love how you've captured this.... without the bugs obscuring the Sparrow's eye! Colors and detail look good! Only suggestion may be a little less rock and a tiny sliver off the LHS. Really cool to see one of these that's NOT singing in a tree!
    www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sandy Witvoet View Post
    That certainly is a mouthful!!! Love how you've captured this.... without the bugs obscuring the Sparrow's eye! Colors and detail look good! Only suggestion may be a little less rock and a tiny sliver off the LHS. Really cool to see one of these that's NOT singing in a tree!
    Thanks Sandy, trust me, there were plenty in the series of exposures where his eye was covered by that mouthful! This was the only one of about 30 that I took where you could see an eye! I could have done about 5 different species those 2 weeks I was at the cottage with a mouthful of fish flies!! I wondered how much rock to leave in on this one, this is about a 25% crop to get rid of an OOF bush on the left.

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    Wonderful!! Perfect view of the eye! Agree with Sandy's crop suggestions, and maybe darken the rock a little. How can they catch a second bug???? (Dragonflies?)

    You had birds showing off with a mouthful of fish flies? Is that a local type of insect, or the things our friend the serious fisherman uses to catch fish? That would make a great picture!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    Wonderful!! Perfect view of the eye! Agree with Sandy's crop suggestions, and maybe darken the rock a little. How can they catch a second bug???? (Dragonflies?)

    You had birds showing off with a mouthful of fish flies? Is that a local type of insect, or the things our friend the serious fisherman uses to catch fish? That would make a great picture!
    Thanks Diane, the other name for them is May Flies. They only live about 24 hours after the adult emerges so the birds just pick up bunches of them from the ground. We call them fish flies up there because the piles of dead ones smell like rotting fish. Gross, huh!?! In early to mid June the numbers of them are astounding and they can pile up like mud under street lights.

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    Yuk!! I've only heard of may flies -- had no idea what they were. You must hope for lots of birds, to keep them under control.

    But now I want to see a picture of a bird with a fishing fly (or whatever they should be called) in its beak! Oh -- am I ever tempted to shoot some that our friend could provide, and have some fun with Photoshop....

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    Yuk!! I've only heard of may flies -- had no idea what they were. You must hope for lots of birds, to keep them under control.

    But now I want to see a picture of a bird with a fishing fly (or whatever they should be called) in its beak! Oh -- am I ever tempted to shoot some that our friend could provide, and have some fun with Photoshop....
    I believe you are referring to Tied Flies used in fly fishing. Go for it!

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    Yes, those things! I find one on the ground every so often around water. I hope they don't get gobbled up by birds. Going to start picking them up...

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    Warren it always amazes me how these birds keep filling there beaks with more and more, this a real nice work.

    Keith.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    Yes, those things! I find one on the ground every so often around water. I hope they don't get gobbled up by birds. Going to start picking them up...
    Yes, I have seen gulls and ducks with hooks in their beaks and bills, so it does happen.

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    Quote Originally Posted by keith mitchell View Post
    Warren it always amazes me how these birds keep filling there beaks with more and more, this a real nice work.

    Keith.
    Thanks Keith, I got a quick shot of a Robin with so many of these in her beak that you could not even see her head!

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    As a fly fisherman, I should be there! Nice focus and detailed captured, such an iconic bird. Maybe a little less rock?

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    I love this one, Warren, I really do. The eye and detail are great, and the bird has that "just got caught with the hand in the cookie jar" look. Very nice photo!


    Mike

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    Quote Originally Posted by WillieHall View Post
    As a fly fisherman, I should be there! Nice focus and detailed captured, such an iconic bird. Maybe a little less rock?
    Thanks Willie, others have mentioned cropping a little more rock out, I'll revisit that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Hansen View Post
    I love this one, Warren, I really do. The eye and detail are great, and the bird has that "just got caught with the hand in the cookie jar" look. Very nice photo!


    Mike
    Thanks Mike, love the comment about the cookie jar look!

    Edit: I just noticed he has 3 of those flies in his beak, I thought there were only two this whole time!
    Last edited by Warren Spreng; 08-03-2015 at 08:53 PM.

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Hi Warren, This is a wonderful capture but I did notice something slightly off when i open the image then I read your description and saw that you had blurred the BG I look at a lot of images and artificially blurred BG alway seems to look unnatural to me. I would also tone the rock down just a bit more as it is still competing with the sparrow for my attention. Your viewers eye will settle on the brightest area of an image and if the area is not the subject then it will pull the focus off of it.
    Don Lacy
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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Lacy View Post
    Hi Warren, This is a wonderful capture but I did notice something slightly off when i open the image then I read your description and saw that you had blurred the BG I look at a lot of images and artificially blurred BG alway seems to look unnatural to me. I would also tone the rock down just a bit more as it is still competing with the sparrow for my attention. Your viewers eye will settle on the brightest area of an image and if the area is not the subject then it will pull the focus off of it.
    Thanks Don for the comments. The blur on the background was simply to take out some noise, so not a heavy gaussian blur, I believe I set the blur at about 1.5 pixels. I toned down the rock quite a bit, it is extremely bright in the raw, but possibly could use some additional work. Thanks again!

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Spreng View Post
    Thanks Don for the comments. The blur on the background was simply to take out some noise, so not a heavy gaussian blur, I believe I set the blur at about 1.5 pixels. I toned down the rock quite a bit, it is extremely bright in the raw, but possibly could use some additional work. Thanks again!
    for noise on the BG I prefere to use NR with a layer and mask to apply it to the BG only
    Don Lacy
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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Lacy View Post
    for noise on the BG I prefere to use NR with a layer and mask to apply it to the BG only
    Thanks for the tip!

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