Baby in the backyard bramble...

[David Roach]

EOS R RF 70-200 @200 f2.8 1/250 ISO 400

My wife ran in on this drizzly afternoon to wake me from my usual book reading slumber. She was concerned about a young blue jay on the ground (made our indoor/outdoor kitty stay inside). Went out and found this beauty perfectly healthy and begging for next meal. Both parents were above in the Oak tree. So, I ran in to get camera. Took me a minute to find a window into the bramble, took a few frames and left the little one and parents in peace. This one seemed just on the edge of being old enough to leave nest, so hope all goes well. They usually keep dependent on and constantly begging from parents till they are at least a week or two from this phase before being completely fledged.

As always comments, suggestions and discussions are valued and welcome. Please keep them coming.

[Randy Stout]

David:

Fun story, you never know what will happen in the backyard!
I like his head position and angle. He looks a bit sad.
Framing by the branches/twigs. pretty effective. In a perfect world, perhaps not the angled twig that just touches the breast

The biggest issue for me is the unusual leaf just above his head. Did you do any processing of it? Looks rather odd. Feel free to post a unprocessed version of this image to show us what you started with.

Cheers

Randy

[David Roach]

[QUOTE=Randy Stout;1236736]David:

Fun story, you never know what will happen in the backyard!
I like his head position and angle. He looks a bit sad.
Framing by the branches/twigs. pretty effective. In a perfect world, perhaps not the angled twig that just touches the breast

The biggest issue for me is the unusual leaf just above his head. Did you do any processing of it? Looks rather odd. Feel free to post a unprocessed version of this image to show us what you started with.

Cheers

Rand
Hi Randy and thank you for the valued inputs. It's just a FG OOF leaf and looks the same in the raw file. No special PP there.

[David Roach]

Slightly lower HA, touch more contrast, offending leaf blew further up and closer crop.

[Randy Stout]

David:

I like the second image because of lack of the offending leaf at the top.

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

So sweet of a find. Worth getting awakened for! Yes, the second is much better for the lack of that leaf and for the clearer colours and contrast. The first seems "muddy" if that makes sense. Depending on what was above, I feel that pointing your lens up a touch more may have been beneficial, especially if it was more greens up there. Fun image and story

[David Roach]

So sweet of a find. Worth getting awakened for! Yes, the second is much better for the lack of that leaf and for the clearer colours and contrast. The first seems "muddy" if that makes sense. Depending on what was above, I feel that pointing your lens up a touch more may have been beneficial, especially if it was more greens up there. Fun image and story

Thanks so much gents. Yes, as i was investigating Randy's suggestion I also noticed I blew the original contrast playing with light and shadow sliders in DPP on OP. Made sure to leave the contrast the lens produced this time.
Thanks again...

[John Mack]

A nice story. Always a plus to photograph the fledings. You did well given the setting.