Hungry Eastern Phoebe Portrait.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Actually, this spider breakfast was for a nestling. The nest was underneath a small footbridge, with no possibility of seeing it. The parents, however, were quite visible and always used the same spot as a staging area before flying under the bridge. I was able to hide from quite close proximity and photograph tight portraits of them with a variety of snacks. This one looks like it also picked up some of the webbing when it snatched the spider.

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/200s., f/8, ISO 1600, natural light, handheld, about 85% FF, eye work, toned down the very brightest whites on the feathers.

[Isaac Grant]

Nice tight portrait here Daniel. We don't have them breeding near me but I wish we did. By the time they come through in migration they are typically very hard to approach. Details look great and the background is perfect.

[Michael Thompson]

nice closeup with nice detail. nice catch with the spider, both for you, and the bird!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dan, interesting portrait of a Eastern Phoebe, spider just adds to the image. Good detail around the eye and bill, but the depth of field falls off fast in other areas. Maybe it might have been better to take off the teleconverter for more depth of field and crop. Thank you for sharing.

[Bill Dix]

Love the head turn. Beautiful BG, and the spider tops it off. Some more DOF would have been welcome, but it doesn't look like you had a surplus of light.

[William Dickson]

That BG looks real good with the various colours. Lovely HA on the bird with beautiful feather detail. Well captured.

Will

[Walker Noe]

Impressive work to handhold that combo! No critique on this one.

[Glenn Pure]

Nice work Daniel with great detail around the eye and bill especially for the shutter speed and focal length used and handheld: Did you prop the lens against something or just get lots of frames and accept that some would suffer motion blur? Lovely background as well. If mine, I'd centre the bird more horizontally as it think it works better when the body is pointing one way and head looking the other. For me, it is giving the bird virtual space when it turns its head back to fly off.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, great look back pose showing off his spider meal for the kids. Great show of the eye, and I like the clean BG too. Great IQ for such a high ISO, but there again, you are the master with the 7D's. Maybe a bit more room on the LHS.

[gail bisson]

Pretty unusual to be able to get a tight portrait of such a small b ird.
Details in bill, prey, head look great but that dramatic fall-off in DOF does impact the image.
I find the pose of the bird a bit awkward-I think that little bit of shoulder on the left of head is the reason for this. I do think a bit more room on LHS would be good.
Great BG colors,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys! Yep, it's odd as I have some poses that were more parallel (which in turn also had much less dof fall-off) but this one caught my eye more than the others of the series.