Here we have a male pyrrhuloxia (trivia item: as far as I know, it's the only word in the English language that starts with five consecutive consonants, provided you count the two 'r's as individual letters) perched among some snakecotton (Froelichia gracilis) stalks. Despite my best efforts at Jedi mind control, sitting there trying to mind-meld a message of "PUT YOUR CREST UP!", this guy didn't ever raise his crest, but it does give you an idea of how to tell these birds apart from the red cardinals at a distance: they have an Alfalfa-like hairdo when the crest is down, whereas the northern cardinal, in the same family, will lay their crest down flat. I really liked how this looks as a square, so I got rid of the empty space on the left and cropped it 1:1.
5D mkIV, 500mm f/4 IS, 1.4x TC III, tripod mounted at a setup.
1/800 @ f/7.1, ISO 1600
Everything about this works for me Jake. The rough bark of the perch provides a nice contrast to the trimly stylish subject and the bright white of the snake cotton really creates a great setting. No head plume but the alert turn of the head makes it come alive.
I think Dan has a point there...Remove all the vegetation and I think this would take it up a notch. Great detail and pose. The colours on the bird, perch and BG look real good together.
Perch is a bit large but everything else is right on: head angle, pose, EXP, SH, and the look-back head turn.
with love, a
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