Oak Titmouse

[Aidan Briggs]

From my backyard. The perch might be a tad thick but this was the only one that they landed on. Do you think the perch is too bright or is it fine?

50D, 100-400 at 360
1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400
Tripod, Blind, Fill Flash

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Aidan The shape helps out the perch Aidan Got a clean bg, well exposed and sharp bird !!! I like the room given in frame !!! Brightness wise looks fine to me !!! All I could wish was more dof and perhaps the rear toes would have been in focus Do like it a lot as presented !!!!

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks Alfred! I wish I had a bit more DOF too, but I didn't want to push the ISO much higher. (Especially on a 50D)

[Stu Bowie]

Aidan, lovely pose, and I like the diagonal perch. Lovely detail on the bird, with soft colours in the BG. I would try and tone down some parts of the perch a tad. Your focussing point looks like it was on the lower part of the wing - I may be wrong.

With regards to Higher ISO's on your 50D, Im quite comfortable with ISO 800+ on my 50D.

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks Stuart, the ISO choice is just a preference of mine. I have shot in the ISO 640-1000 range before with decent results, but I feel more comfortable with an ISO under 640.

P.S. The focus was between the beak and the eye.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Aiden, This is one fine image. I would not change much but might lighten the iris a tad (if I knew the bird...)

Got your e-mail. Keep your eye on the NANPA web site and let me know what's up.

[Dan Brown]

Very Nice Aidan, athough, I would like to see the perch be Oak and not Cholla!:D

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the details, perch and BG. I think there is a slight magenta color cast.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very nice color composition of bird, perch and BG.
Perch not too big IMHO, quite appropriate for the bird and habitat.

[Dick Glover]

Aiden,
Perch size and brightness looks good here, and appropriate. Having spent the last 8 rainy days photograping many of these birds, I can say the color and sharpness are very nice and I particularly like the background. Thanks for sharing.
Dick

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks all.

Artie: I will let you know if it comes up.

Dan: I think I brought this perch back from a trip to Arizona a few years back, and although they are found more commonly in oak trees, I do believe that they live there too.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Aidan, I checked out the range map for Oak Titmouse and they aren't found in AZ, Juniper Titmouse occurs there. But, I believe Cholla is found in the Oak Titmouses range in SoCal. So, you are ok either way:D:D. Beautiful shot BTW.

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks for the info, Dan.