This fella was perched up in an evergreen, an odd spot especially when you are looking down at the ponds' edges for their presence! It was a pretty neat opportunity to photograph it up there, and even better when it gave this bonus after-preen stretch.
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/200s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, FF, an oof twig removed in the clear area at right.
You sure framed that shot very well! I love the pose, the green needles of the tree, and especially the multi-color OOF background.
The dead branch and brown needles just left of the bird draw my eye. Perhaps there is something that can be done to make them less prominent? Applying blur to them to make them seem more like OOF background ? As I imagine it, that may do something quite good to this already great shot.
Always interesting how we each see things differently. I am fine with the rusty colored branch in the original post. The bird's eyes kept my focus on him. Nice pose and the habitat, although prominent, makes this interesting to me.
Excellent image.
I was thinking about the dead branch and saw the repost.( before reading any bodies comments).
Superb composition. Rest as usual great.
To me the most amazing of this image is the metadata- 500+1,4 HH at 1/200- do you have gimbal arms, Sir?
Or do you control your breathing really well?
Well done!