Pied Wheat ear (juv)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 5D IV Canon 500mm f4 l IS II + 2xTC III
ISO 2500 +1.0 , 1/2500sec f8

ACR11 + PSCC2018

Something of a rarity in UK and certainly a first for me, maybe a first for BPN?
I had no difficulty in locating the bird - just followed the cars then the birders then the photographers, there were literally hundreds of people.

[Jake Levin]

Very nice pose, sharpness, and background. Rare birds tend to create enough of a following that figuring out where they are gets less difficult as more and more cars show up, especially once the alert websites start lighting up like a Christmas tree! We occasionally get the Northern Wheatear as a vagrant here in eastern Canada, but the pied variety, to my knowledge, doesn't tend to stray this far west. I would crop the image a bit from the right side to resolve two things: 1, get the bird out of the center, and 2, take away some of the OOF foreground.

TFS.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Beautiful capture, and pose, Jonathan. Great you were able to get close and show all that fine feather detail. Like the yellow lichen on the rock perch as well.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[John Mack]

Great pose on this one. Nice details too. Like the low angle and the background.

[Robert Ainslie]

Hello Jonathan,

This bird is a rare vagrant to Southern Africa, I think only one has been recorded in Natal.

The image is nice and sharp not withstanding the fact that you were using a X2 TC. I usually battle with this.
Were you using a tripod?

As far as the image is concerned, I tend to agree with Jake and would be inclined to reduce the OOF foreground.

Regards,
Rob

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I concur with your suggestions relating to cropping, I don't know why I didn't crop as you suggest (all my other images of this bird were!).
Robert on this occasion I did use a tripod mainly because I was told that he bird was approachable, but whenever a tripod is practicable I would use it.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, congrats on the capture, well done, especially in avoiding the folk.

For me, it's a cracking image, nice colour palette and detail, perhaps open the eye up a fraction for some detail? Although I'm a huge fan (as you know) of getting as low as you can, I wonder if being a fraction higher here may have been better as it would, I think, have brought more of the ground into play and reduced the OOF part?

TFS
Steve

[annmpacheco]

Great looking bird Jon, and IQ loks good. Sure a different crop which is easy but otherwise a gem of a shot!

[Arthur Morris]

A simple and perfect capture. Sharp with a sweet, alert pose. I'd execute a small crop from above and behind to move the bird away from the center and tighten things up a bit.

with love, artie