Male Bluebird Flying to Nesting Box

[Marlo Casabar]

When I first saw this pair of nesting Bluebirds bringing material to this box, I had parked the car at about a 45 degree angle from the nesting box. The male liked to hover in front of the box, but he was so fast I couldn't focus on him. It took me about 45 minutes to realize that I needed to move my car parallel to the nesting box, focus on the front entry hole and hope that the focus would be correct for his flight behavior.

This is the second shot of him as he flew to the entry hole.

RAW file edited in DPP4. Created TIF file which was then edited in PS CC. Shadows 2 Highlights 12, resized image for BPN, then Smart Sharpen of 160 on the bird.

As always, I appreciate any comments.

Marlo

Canon 7D Mk II, 600mm f/4L IS II USM and 1.4x III
Manual f/5.6 1/4000 ISO 1000

[David Salem]

Nice looking frame Marlo. Looks like you have a great opportunity there to catch something really nice with that nest box and that beautiful green background. Looks like the ISO was a bit too much for your 7D and the image looks a bit overprocessed. Try to keep that 7D at the lowest ISO possible.
Keep working with the light angle and hopefully you can come up with something special from this location. You can shoot stuff like this at one twenty-five hundredth of a second fairly successfully. Good luck