These guys are everywhere this time of year, but even though they will visit feeder set-ups, they prefer to stay on the ground and not use the perches. I decided to set up low where I'd seen the local flock running around (and sliding quite a bit on the layer of ice from a recent storm) to see if I could get a shot of one by himself, and this bird stayed still for a moment, perhaps contemplating why everything was so slippery underfoot. I couldn't get rid of the little bit of ice between his feet, but I cleaned up the ice surface a bit with the spot removal tool.
7D mkII, 500mm f/4 IS
1/1000 @ f/7.1, ISO 400
Last edited by Jake Levin; 01-27-2018 at 01:16 PM.
Agree with the nice separation from the background. I have mixed feelings about the larger chunk of ice to the right. You can almost imagine he is looking at it.
Just as an experiment, I would remove the ice block, and see which you prefer.
It was indeed very cold! Walking around following birds is one thing; sitting in one place for hours is quite another.
I think the ice block would be a bit tricky to remove, but I sort of like it, in that it's the only thing in the photograph besides the bird, and he does appear to be contemplating it, perhaps wondering what this strange substance is that's causing him to skid around like hockey player. If I were to get rid of anything I'd rather take out the little bit of ice between the feet, but I don't think that's possible.
Thanks for the feedback!
Edit to add: re-post time! The brightness on the block of ice needed to be toned down a bit to get the RGB values closer to 250 than to toasted 255. I also did some additional ice clean-up.
Last edited by Jake Levin; 01-27-2018 at 10:40 PM.
Hi Jake, I like the inquisitive look, and I really like the wintery feel to the image. I dont get to see ice and snow. Here is a quick repost showing what can be done if you wanted to get rid of both distractions. This was really about a 5 min job.
Hi Stu, could you pretty please let me know how you removed the ice between the feet? I've been at it for 30 minutes and can't get anything to look right.
Thanks!
These guys are fun to photograph, even if it means waiting in the cold and out in the windy open. Now that we see versions to compare, I like the block of ice left intact, but I like the little piece of ice between the feet gone.
Lovely wintery shot, to me I like having both the blocks off ice in the shot, they both add extra detail to look and and consider - the kind of thing that hols attention a little longer in the frame.
Well it took a while but I finally got rid of that little ice block. I also did some fine-tuning of the whites on the larger piece of ice, which I want to keep in the photo--I agree with Mike that it adds a bit to an otherwise empty frame, and gives the bird something to look at--and also did some really nitpicky dodging of the grays in the bird's face just to bring the head out a tiny bit more. I hope you like the (for now) final edit! Thanks again to everyone for their help and C&C
-Jake
Tree Sparrow
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