The Evodia trees have been flowering on the Tablelands for the past few weeks.
They are an unusual tree because the flower stems originate from the branches not the fresh growth.
Clusters of flowers form on stems growing out of old leaf axils
Lorikeets, honeyeaters and large green beetles have been working the trees.
The leaves of these trees are also the favoured food of the caterpillar of the spectacular Ulysses butterfly.
A park in Atherton has a large Evodia tree right next to the BBQ shelter.
The birds seem to take little notice of moderate activity within the shelter.
On previous visits the weather was overcast with light drizzle but I was able to stay dry within the shelter.
Whilst there was a mature male Scarlet present he didn't work the flowers close to me.
A shame as I would like to have shared his colours with you.
As such this individual becomes one of the many "Small Brown Birds" we seem to have.
A local ornithologist friend made the following comments:
" It can be a bit hard to tell juveniles from adult females but this one has not lost the yellow soles to the feet that
they have as nestlings and all the flight feathers seem to be the same age,
so juvenile moulting into immature plumage around the face. " Alan Gillanders of Alan's Wildlife Tours.
Equipment.
Pentax 10D
Sigma 70-300mm at 300mm
Hand Held
On camera flash activated with small fresnel lens to concentrate flash.
ISO 200
SS 180 (TV)
f 13
Metering: Pattern (not sure how it got set to that)
Processed in Lightroom
Heavily cropped ( not the ideal situation for an image from a 10MP sensor)
Exposure : lightened
Shadows +81
Blacks -62
Clarity +69
Vibrance +60
Bit of an awkward pose and composition. Flowers dominated top of frame in original and bird looked like it was falling out of frame.
Comments Welcomed
Paul
It is a bit of an awkward pose, but that's what the bird was doing so no problem there for me. I'd say you cropped a little too tight for the IQ; the full frame composition is more pleasing to my eye, but I would consider a crop from the right to remove the stem near the edge.
The bird is on the dark side -- hard to know without seeing the raw file but I would check to see if you darkened it too much with those moves with the Blacks and Clarity sliders. A little stronger on the flash would have been good if the raw is that dark, as lightening dark areas will only bring up noise.
Sounds like you will have more opportunities to try for these birds. I'd try for an angle where the head didn't have a busy flower behind it, but that might be a challenge.
Paul, These are lovely little guys. We have them down here as well. I have tried growing the Evodia down here with no success. I didn't know the juvi males had yellow soles. I have managed to get some shots of the males, but like the image you have posted, lack the punch of a FF image. I think, Jim, yourself and I, are all suffering from the same thing. Just not close enough. I have to grab what I can when I see it. Time is not on my side.
Awkward pose or not Paul, you have captured the exact behavior of these little birds. He looks a little like a Japanese painting. I hope you don't mind me playing here, but I thought this might work. Just a bit of quick and dirty. I've cloned out the green stuff on the bottom and jazzed up the pink Evodia a little and added a bit of canvas to the bottom. Does he still look like he's falling out of the frame?
It was interesting to see that you cranked up the clarity and vibrance. I must be a bit timid. I never go more than +20. I'll have to give it a whirl.
I'm not sure if I would have used the settings that you have described here. The SS seems slow for a bird like this. I always try to have the widest aperture I can.
I'm sure if you go back with the idea of capturing this little guy, you will eventually get him.
Thanks Dianne and Glennie. I went back there today to put some of your suggestions into practise.
Not so many Scarlet Honeyeaters but a very obliging Yellow Faced Honeyeater.
Being a larger bird this time I was filling the frame too much. Using too much flash power too.
I'm getting too much clutter in my images. The clean up you did certainly improved it Glennie, thanks.
Was using a Tokina ATX 100-300 and a hammer-head flash. The combination was very cumbersome.
Next visit, if the flowers last, I will back off a bit use a 500mm lens on tripod and open the lens right up.
Hopefully I can use a low ISO to keep the shutter speed down to the 1/180th synch speed.
Paul.
Scarlet Honeyeater (juvenile) Scarlet myzomela
