With the kibosh on international travel - I've already lost a two-week Colombia tour I was leading and a three-week personal trip to Brazil - I'll be around California all summer.
All the waterbirds have returned to the Arctic to nest, so my goal for the next few months is to focus on the resident land birds and fill in the gaps in my photo collection. I had
only record shots of Grasshopper Sparrow before this morning, so these were very welcomed. These guys prefer open grasslands, so I was stoked to get this guy on a hillside
where I could use a distant coniferous hillside as a background. These guys are always shown on tan, so the dark BG makes this a really unique image.
Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 5D4
1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 640
Processed in LR CC without trickery
Indeed. This is a unique background for these quiet little guys. Lovely shot. Not that I mind seeing them against dry grassland tan, or light green. Great singing pose.
Excellent.
IQ and singing pose are topnotch.
Great BG color. I really like the perch.
In a perfect world a bit more DOF might have gotten both feet sharp but doesn't bother me at all,
Gail
These guys are at the extreme northern breeding edge of their range over here, and thus rather uncommon, but a few spots have these and they are always a pleasure to photograph! You did great here, and yes the dark BG really sets him off beautifully. They are quite animated in their singing for such a faint buzzy song!