Blue Jay from bed

[Bruce Enns]

Shot from my bed this morning :D...we have a feeder set up on the balcony off our bedroom and it is frequently visited early in the morning by a flock of Stellar's Jays and often 1 or 2 Blue Jays. The Blue Jay is supposed to be rare on the west side of the Rockies, but they have been steadily moving west and are more common now than a few years ago. I planned a bit for this shot by setting up a perch, cleaning the door's window, and putting out an extra pile of sunflower seeds last night...and then remembered to put the camera beside the bed.

I am undecided about the OOF sticks and flower head in the LLC...comments and critique are welcome!

Canon 50D, Canon 70-200 f/4 lens @ 200mm and f/5.6, 1/800s, ISO 800 +1/3EV, cropped to vertical, QMd some distracting elements

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Pretty convenient setup. :) I like the eye contact and details and find the angle a bit steep, getting up might have helped with that. :) I see a slight magenta cast on my monitor and might clone out the other branches.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Axel...I'm not sure where you're seeing a steep angle...the bird and branch were just about exactly eye and camera level...

Cheers!
Bruce

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks Axel...I'm not sure where you're seeing a steep angle...the bird and branch were just about exactly eye and camera level...

Cheers!
Bruce

Interesting, I thought you were several feet below the bird.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely colours and pose with the sunflower seed in the bill. I also get the impression of lookng up at the bird a bit. I suspect a bit more than +1/3 would have helped reduce the noise in the dark tones - did you need to adjust levels/curves much to push the BG white and brighten the bird?

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Tony, Yes I did need to push the exposure up in LR, +1EV would have been better, and I had the light to do that, and to drop the ISO a bit...maybe tomorrow morning...

Cheers!
Bruce

[Ken Watkins]

I like your method of photography! I would also clone out some of the branches on this capture
Good luck for tomorrow this is a beautiful bird.