Ladder-Backed Woodpecker II

[Mark Schmitt]

2nd offering of this bird. It is not as common, and has a more specific habitat than the similar Nuttall's

Locatoin: Kelso Valley; Kern Co., CA., USA
Conditions: mid-winter, cold

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lense: Canon EF 500 IS L/ f 4.0
Mode: Apeture Priority
Metering: averaging
Exposure: 1/2000 @ 7.1
Comp: -.33
Ambient light.

Workflow: Adobe Lightroom 1.4; Adobe CS2 post processing

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely light and BG, Mark. The composition is very central and I wonder whether cropping quite a bit off the left may make the perch look less heavy. There is a prominent halo around the beak and top of the bird but the plumage looks soft - some selective sharpening may remedy this and avoid making the perch look too crispy.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I would definitely crop this as a vertical, eliminating most of the left part of the big perch. I love the pose of the woodpecker...perfect head angle, and a great BG colour too. You dealt with the harsh light adequately :-)

[Aidan Briggs]

Good comments from above. Was this a set up?

[James Salywoda]

Very nice Mark I agree with Daniel on cropping to a more conventional vertical with less space to the left