American Goldfinch With Birch Catkins.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I saw a few goldfinches feeding high in this small birch tree, but hoped for at least one of them to come down to the more eye-level catkins. I put on the audio, and then about 20 goldfinches sprung out immediately out of nowhere and began to creep down into place. I turned off the audio, and they continued to feed right at eye-level for at least another five minutes before spooking away. There were three or four other goldfinches spaced out along this thin branch, making it bounce and difficult to properly place an individual into good placement...what fun!

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/800s., f/8, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped to help the comp (but still originally a vertical).

[David Roach]

Love the framing light, perch and killer BG. Awesome canvas IMHO. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Lighting, perch, and composition are killer! Love the underside view and eye contact. The BG is perfect for fall (or what's left of it). One of your most memorable canvases....

[dankearl]

It is very nice... I may drop the exposure a millimeter.. Excellent.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Dan, I like the light and the background, the autumnal colours look really appealing.

[Brian Sump]

Daniel, very pretty on a simple subject. Love the pinecones, a unique perch indeed.

Pose and processing look good. Splash of yellow on the neck really helps the frame IMO.

It would be great to have maybe just a touch more left but I like this comp in present form too.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely light, making the catkins glow. Comp looks great to me as is.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Diagonal Line, Dark Background, and the pose works well with this image.

TFS