Taken recently at a location near my home. I had to add some canvas here, as it was an even tighter fit in my viewfinder, but lucky nothing was clipped. Would have liked the feet more in focus, but I was at f5.6 photographing other things when this guy flew past me.
Always difficult ungainly birds to capture but you did well here getting the head and eye sharp.
I doubt that more f-stop would have made much difference at that proximity.
A good opportunistic shot. HNY to you Paul.
Hi Paul, a dramatic intense stare from the darter here, and I dont mind the lack of DOF, as the head is in focus. I wish the head was separated from the far wing.
Love the sharp view of the bird's striking face even if the intersecting wing isn't ideal. Sorry to hear he was so close in this instance; that's not usually a problem we have! I imagine you can't rotate the image CCW; right ow it seems to run upper-left to lower right. Even OOF, the feet are pretty incredible.
Thanks so much everyone...looking forward to seeing more of your work in 2021.
Ann: I actually added quite a bit more canvas, but yes...it needed more.
Happy New Year to you all