Blue Jay

[Steve Maxson]

This was taken at a backyard feeder setup. I like the partially open wing. The natural light was from the upper right and slightly behind the bird. Fill flash saved the day here, IMO. 40D, 500 f/4, 1/250, f/6.3, ISO 400, fill flash at -2 1/3 with better beamer. I removed the flash-generated catchlight. Comments are welcome.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice light and detail in the plimage with awesome composition. The angle is steep but acceptable. It could go a bit lighter, IMO.

[Juan Aragonés]

Superb job Steve, really nice image and what a cool bird species. I love the nice BG and the perch with those fantastic yellow lichens (great shape, by the way). The relaxed pose of the jay and the fantastic head turn makes this image even better. Fill flash is a bit scarce from my point of view and the eye and face area needs some aditional levels adjustment to add more life to the bird. From a composition point of view, I think that this image would also work very finely in landscape format, with more of that fantastic green BG at the left. Congratulations for an excellent image :-)

[Tony Whitehead]

Superb pose, perch and BG. Agree on the fillflash suggestion - -1.7 may have been a better option but this is a lovely image.

[Richard Peters]

Stunning birds these. I only managed a grab shot of one last time I was in Florida. Really like the pose here although I'm not a fan of square crops and the big darker OOF circle just to the right of the birds back keeps drawing my eye. I'd still be thrilled if it were mine though as I don't have anything close!

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Very nice. Good HA, open wing is a plus as you mentioned, shows more detail. I do think you could lighten it a bit and still maintain the nice rendering from the light angle. Interesting perch as noted.
In a perfect world, I wish the tail didn't merge with the perch, but the marked color differences does help.

I find that blue jays react pretty violently to the preflash, and it is hard to catch them still. Whats your secret?

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Steve, super pose, lovely colour with good detail, and I like the yellow linchens on the perch. The circular light spots in the BG are a bit distracting. I would try and blend them in.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the details, perch and eye contact. I wish the tail and perch were more separate and the image has a slight magenta cast.

[Charles Wesley]

steve,

This is a very clean and colorful image. Like the way the BG works with this bird.
Thanks for sharing...
____________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone.

Randy - No flash secrets here. I'm still learning to use fill flash. All I can say is that these jays did not seem particularly bothered by the flash going off.

[Kim Rollins]

Very nice capture here. It turned perfect to you IMO and good exposure and composition, etc.

We were fortunate enough to have on come and spend the winter with us here in OR. It was the first one I had ever seen and it was a daily visitor here from Sept till the first part of May.

I also see and overall color cast in this image.

[Mike Lentz]

Hi Steve!

Nice head angle pose and perch symmetry. I would clone out the broken twig on the top left hand side of the image and tweak the color cast I see in the whites on the bird.

[Gary Zim]

Great capture. We have them often by our feeders but I cannot manage to make a capture which would stand next to this one. Bravo

Gary