I know these are extremely common birds but I had never been this close to one before to realise that they are actually very beautiful birds. This was taken as I was trying to get Painted Bunting shots at the feeder in Corkscrew...The Dove came and sat on the railing very close to me...I turned, shot (with my camera of course) and it flew back down below the board walk. My aperture was still set to be wide open for the painted buntings further away so the DOF on this shot isn't quite as deep as I wanted and to be honest the angle isn't ideal...But I just wanted to share my discovery of beauty with you.
D300 - 70-300 @ 300mm
1/320 @ f / 5.6
0ev
No Flash
Did use tripod as it was set for the buntings
ISO 200
Aperture Priority
Metering: Eval
It is a beautiful bird and you got a great angle Only going lower would have made it better, would have given a neat perspective. Surprised it made it up at all, normally they just hang around under the feeder !!! .... hope you got a male bunting !!!
Unfortunately the buntings weren't playing ball at that feeder...they did play ball at the feeder directly as you walk out of the visitor centre onto the boardwalk though...That is where the shot I posted previously (which you and Gus very kindly gave me some advice on) came from.
they do have some interesting colors. nice job with the focal point on the eye!! real sharp. getting lower would have changed the bg and maybe made it better. too bad about the buntings. next time!!
Very nice shot Rob. It is a pretty bird. Nice details. Not sure if a bit of a crop off the right to get rid of the dark area would help or not.
Thanks for sharing, Dave
Mourning Dove
