I had a wonderful day yesterday walking around College Lake Wildlife Centre near Tring. At one point of the walk I noticed this Robin. He (I'll assume it's a he!) was totally unafraid of me and allowed me to photograph him at various perches and distances. :)
Technical Details:
Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 300mm f/2.8 + 1.4 extender (420mm), monopod, 1/640 @ f/8, ISO400. Image output from Lightroom into Photoshop, some noise reduction and a little sharpening.
Beautiful bird, I like this image as well!! If pressed for a nit or 2 I would say maybe a little off the top and the out of focus lower branch bothers me a little it takes my eye off the bird. A little bit more of a head turn would have given you a better catch light as well.
I'll tell you though this image stands well as is, you did really well with this!!!
Good points about the vertical positioning and oof branch (he was sat in a bush for this photo) and head turn/catch light. I can use these next time :)
Yes, you did have a great day yesterday, Ben. This is a fine image. I really like the sharpness and the habitat that shows gently through your background and foreground. Good work!
Thanks Judd! I had a lot of fun with this guy. He kept on getting too close for the lens to focus so I'd spend that time just looking and chatting to him (yeah, I know it's daft but he seemed to be listening!). At one point he flew right at me, almost perching on the lens hood. Instead he hopped 6 inches back and admired his reflection in the lens!
If ever I needed a second camera body it was then. I could have taken a couple of steps back and had a wonderful image of a robin looking down the 300mm! :)
And a tripod Ben, as when you would step back to make the image, the 1DIII with the 300mm will need more than a monopod to stand on!!
Jokes apart, a wonderful image.
Robin
