Walker and I did an amazing trip in his home state of Arizona. The goal of the trip was to photograph as many species as possible with a concentration on hard to get birds and owls. When the lighting conditions were too harsh we concentrated on finding life birds. I ended the trip with 11 species I had never seen before and with some truly amazing experiences. I have been a birder since I was 4 years old but can't remember so many close encounters with birds on a trip. Walkers local knowledge of the land and birds was invaluable. This Five-striped Sparrow was photographed near Madera Canyon. It was one of my major targets on the trip as there are only a handful of them in the United States. It was a life bird and of course a photographic lifer as well. We had prolonged up close looks at 3 of them as they fed down a canyon and then came to the top of the canyon to sing. The wind had picked up and wind was blowing the plant that they were perching on all over the place so we had to shoot high shutter speed to try and freeze the action. I have had this problem a bunch lately but I had to really lower the quality of the photo to fit the size restrictions so hope the quality comes through.
Canon 1dx mark ii and Canon 600 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. ISO 1250, F8, SS 1/3200.
Fantastic shot. People underestimate how difficult of a bird this is to see, let alone in the open on a killer perch. That little stretch of road was good to us (except the hooded oriole ) . No nits, looking forward to more posts.
Colin these birds were very interesting. Every photo I have seen of them shows a drab sparrow that's nicely marked. In the shade that is how they looked. But in the sun they had a very metallic, shiny and colorful plumage with thick and coarse feather structure. This was sharpened less than my normal .5 and 100 using smart sharpen. Think this one was .4 and 89. I would guess that's what you are seeing but of course I'm not sure what monitor you are viewing this on.
Last edited by Isaac Grant; 08-01-2018 at 11:05 PM.
Hi Isaac, the sharpness looks ok here. Lovely pose and the open bill adds. I like the perch and the OOF branch and leaves matches the perch well. Good pose on the bird and lovely POV. I wish the tail was in focus, but very nice as is. Good work and congrats on your lifer.
Five-striped Sparrow
Reply With Quote
) . No nits, looking forward to more posts.
