New Zealand Tui

[Tony Whitehead]

The Tuis are having great fun in the Taiwanese cherries at the moment - waiting patiently for the native Kowhai to flower. Just got this one in the garden this afternoon. Difficult exposure as dark with white neck feathers and bright iridescence.
Nikon D300
Nikon 200-400 @ 270
1/3200 f5 fill flash -1 ISO 400

[Doug Brown]

Looks like a tough exposure alright Tony! I like the pose, sharpness and perch. Also like the tuft of white and the metallic green of the bird. I'd like to see some more detail in the darker areas of plumage, and looking at those whites I'd say you've got some room to push your histogram to the right a little further. Thanks for posting.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Doug has covered it all but love the excellent detail and color in the head area as well as the good eye contact. The angle is a bit steep and wonder if it would have been possible to step back a little. Many thanks for sharing Tony.

[John Chardine]

What a treat to see a native New Zealand bird and to experience spring in the southern hemisphere through this image! Although fill flash does not work well with dark birds like this, a small puff of light for the breast and belly would have filled in the big shadow there.

[Tony Whitehead]

What a treat to see a native New Zealand bird and to experience spring in the southern hemisphere through this image! Although fill flash does not work well with dark birds like this, a small puff of light for the breast and belly would have filled in the big shadow there.

Thanks John - it's always hard to look at all the spring shots from the north when we are heading into winter here ! I agree the dark shadow is a problem. The -1 flash seemed to do nothing - the ventral feathers are quite dark and dull with none of the iridescence so really just suck up all the light. The best shots of these are views from the back - I have some from last spring that I will post

[John Chardine]

Sorry Tony- I should have noticed you used fill flash. Looking at the techs more closely (should have done this off the bat!) I see you used 1/3200s ss. This would have caused a lot of fall-off on the high-speed synched flash compared to a lower shutter speed. This and the -1 compensation reduced your flash output hugely.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Real tough exposure which I think you did very well with. Over all I like this image alot. Great perch and comp.

[Steve Canuel]

Hi Tony,
Love the color of this bird (my first car was similar but without the fluff balls). May have beeen nice to se detail throughout but I personally like the gradual transition of visible details from the head/chest and dark shadows.
Steve