Eastern Bluebird on a cold winter day

[Randy Stout]

This female bluebird was captured recently on a cold winter day. She was all fluffed up to stay warm.

D810. 500PF. 1.400s. f/7.1. ISO 3200 hand held

Post: 5% crop from right side, full frame vertically. Clone stamp to one dark spot in bg.

Shallow dof, because of focal length and how close I was. Didn't want to have to increase the ISO anymore.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Very cute little female, almost puffed up enough to qualify as a birb. Looks like a cold day. Also looks like she has a band on her right leg. Nice detail where it counts.

[John Mack]

Like the framing here. Nice to have all that room for the bird to look into. Neat it is banded. Like the rock perch.

[Alex Becker]

Great looking female. I haven't seen one on a rock before so that is nice. Love the pose and the image does portray a cold day. Didn't notice the band, but don't have a problem with it either. I struck out on these guys this winter, maybe this spring. TFS

[Aditya Sridhar]

Really nice, Randy. Exposure looks good - it's so easy to blow-out that eye-ring but you've handled it really well. I might try brightening the image globally just slightly, but it certainly works as presented. I like how the bird's perched on the side of the rock. Strong frame. TFS

[gail bisson]

Such a pretty little bird.
Love the gray rock and complimentary gray BG.
I didn't notice the band at first so I have to say that it doesn't take away from the image.
Yes, to a bit more DOF but face/eye and bill are nice and sharp.
Does the D 810 have a high MP resolution? Because if it does, you could have moved back a couple of feet and increased your DOF a bit more and just cropped the image a bit more.
So easy to be an armchair critic!
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Gail, D810 is 36 MP, so lots of data to play with. But I didn't have the opportunity to move when this young lady landed unexpectedly in that spot. Guess I need a zoom lens!

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very pretty gal. Her subtle colours look great. Neat perch, with its' roundness adding to the bluebirds roundness as well.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Daniel:

I also appreciated the round perch, round bird, and liked the color harmony of the rock and background.

Yes, quite a subtle bird, but seemed to fit the subdued color palette well.

Cheers

Randy