Bay-breasted Warbler

[Isaac Grant]

I am not too fond set ups for warbler/song bird photography. I think most of those images, while they are pretty look too perfect and like they are done in a studio. Plus I don't really like the idea of incessantly using playback to lure the birds in and get them agitated. So I have been making some effort to shoot these birds when they are out in the open by 2 of my local streams. The Bay-breasted Warbler was photographed last Friday at Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island, New York. They are one of my favorite birds but typically are seen high. However, this bird provided fantastic looks and photo opportunities. These dark green backgrounds are killing me. I am aware that when I downsize the image for BPN that there is some posterization that is not there in the full res file so I am just going to ignore it. The background is the water of the stream that was deep in shadow.

Canon 1dx mark ii and Canon 100-400 ii + 1.4x iii. ISO 1600, F8, SS 1/640. Fill flash used at I think -2 2/3 but can't remember exactly

Edit: Per Ann's suggestion, I cleaned up the catchlight.

[annmpacheco]

HAts off to you Isaac, this is top notch, top shelf as well so cheers to you... I will also gladly ignore the posterization, the BG is a perfect color to compliment this very handsome BBWA, love the perfect HA, and the wonderful detail. I would only suggest removing one of the two catchlights... Fill flash did wonders here and just a puff did it! Very lovely, great job.

[Glenn Pure]

Beautiful work Isaac. Love the pose and the stunning detail you've captured against a perfect contrasting background. The substrate works well too and nice simple composition sets this off. I love the little birds too but they can be a challenge to photograph.

I read with great interest your comments on call playback. Seems it is used a lot by some folk over your way (and here too I gather). Interestingly, I'm a member of Birdlife Photogaphy which is a special interest group of Birdlife Australia. We developed an ethics policy a few years ago after reviewing the scientific literature and ban the use of call playback for any images we publish on our website. We are doing more work to examine the literature on that subject (I'm personally not involved) but we have not found anything yet to change the policy.

[gail bisson]

This just pops off the page.
Love the rock perch and the green BG.
Perfect HA and I love the hue of the chestnut color that the slight flash has given the bird,
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Glenn. Playback is a complicated issue. Kind of like talking politics. People clearly on either side. I am kind of in the middle really. I have done it here and there while photographing birds and just birding. The vast majority of the warblers that come through my area do not breed here. As such they are not really territorial and usually don't care about playback. The really issue is playback on breeding grounds. I see that repeated playback of breeding birds could surely have a negative impact. However there is perhaps the same or greater impact by people spending long periods of time in the habitat hoping for a shot as opposed to playing a call, getting a shot and leaving. I'm not sure which is worse. Mostly setting up perches so that every photo just looks dead on perfect with tiny buds or little flowers just kind of feels like cheating a bit to me. Kind of takes the sport out of trying to get that shot naturally. Sometimes the shot is more about the experience for me than the end result.

[Glenn Pure]

Hey Glenn. Playback is a complicated issue. Kind of like talking politics. People clearly on either side. I am kind of in the middle really. I have done it here and there while photographing birds and just birding. The vast majority of the warblers that come through my area do not breed here. As such they are not really territorial and usually don't care about playback. The really issue is playback on breeding grounds. I see that repeated playback of breeding birds could surely have a negative impact. However there is perhaps the same or greater impact by people spending long periods of time in the habitat hoping for a shot as opposed to playing a call, getting a shot and leaving. I'm not sure which is worse. Mostly setting up perches so that every photo just looks dead on perfect with tiny buds or little flowers just kind of feels like cheating a bit to me. Kind of takes the sport out of trying to get that shot naturally. Sometimes the shot is more about the experience for me than the end result.

Thanks for responding on this Isaac. I guess this is where we should critique images and not discuss photography ethics so I appreciate your efforts and insights.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Isaac,
A stunning subject and pleasing background really make this shot special. Well done.
Allen

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot Isaac, a really colourful little bird which I had not seen before. The use of flash was a wise move, well done.

[Mike Poole]

Nice pose on the bird, and a nice clean shot. I'm not a big fan of flashed shots, but at least its quite subtle here. I'd be tempted to lose some of the rock

Mike

[John Mack]

Flash makes this little guy pop. I like the dark background.

[David Salem]

Man this is good Isaac!! As I mentioned before, the pose and details are stellar!! especially against that killer dark BG. I know you aren't very flash savvy, like me, but this one filled it in perfectly without a hint of it in the image. Thats how a flashed image should look.
Oh ya, always clean up the catchlights in the eyes. It gives the perception of the image being even sharper. Even if the catchlight is deformed or oblong, I fix them to make the rounder and clean. Even though it's a small part of my PP workflow, I check every image and adjust if need be. Great work

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Amazing Shot. Really Well executed.

I love the colors on the bird, use of fill flash really works well.

Thanks for sharing

[William Dickson]

A beauty Isaac. The detail on the bird is spot on, as is the exposure. Never used a flash myself, but, after looking at this, I think I will have to try it out sometime. Very nice.

Will

[Isaac Grant]

This was my first outing ever using flash for song birds. And first time I attached the 1.4x iii to the 100-400 ii. I bought the flash for myself for Christmas. I feel like I have left too many opportunities on the table by not having a flash. The vast majority of the migrant passerines are seen along heavily wooded streams and waterways. There is no such thing as golden hour light in the forest. My local stream is great for birds and I was tired of missing birds because the light was bad. Flash really fixes this. When the sun hits this stream it is late morning as it is surrounded by tall trees and hillsides on either side which is far from ideal. And even when there is sun there it is scattered and only in certain spots. The flash really solves this problem and opens up a whole new world of opportunities that I am really excited to take advantage of. I read a bunch about it and messed around in the field until I got settings that looked natural. The other cool thing about this spot is you have areas of light surrounded by deep shade which really adds a dramatic look to the shots. It's the kind of look that would look flashed with a light bird with deep shade behind it even if you didn't use flash.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Isaac, lovely eye level perspective with a great pose and HA. I really like the colours on this fellow, and overall nice and sharp. You choose a great setting/position to have the Warbler posed against the water BG. I feel there is just enough FG.

[Bill Dix]

Stunning capture of this hard-to-get warbler. Colors and detail, as well as the background, are lovely. I agree about audio and setups -- not that I haven't used both, but getting a shot like this without either gives me much greater satisfaction.