White-crowned Sparrow

[Mike Milicia]

EOS-1D Mk III, 500mm f/4, 1/160, f/8, ISO 800
Evaluative metering at +0.3
Fill Flash at -3 with Better Beamer
About 60% of Full Frame

Removed flash catchlight and small piece of debris from bill.

Photographed last month at a feeder setup in Rondeau Provincial Park in southwest Ontario.

Looking forward to your comments and critiques!

[Tony Whitehead]

Superb BG and good sharp focus, Mike. Good subtle flash use. I might burn in the perch a little to darken it. I think this could also work cropped from below to create a square format.

[Steve Maxson]

A nice pose with a good head angle plus a great background, Mike. Nice use of fill flash and I like that you removed the flash-generated catchlight. Good comp, though Tony's suggestion would work well as an alternate. Well done.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Light, exposure control and BG look good, I only wish for more eye contact.

[Randy Stout]

Mike:

I always look at the image and make up my mind before looking at others critiques, and my 1st thought was to crop it up from the bottom a bit, just above the little tag of bark sticking out on the left.
The light appeared pretty soft, and as others have commented, nice flash use.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Super detail with a gorgeous BG. I would like to see the head turned slightly towards you. If I were going to work on the perch at all, it would be the bright area at the very top.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ditto Doug on the head angle. Neat perch, great BG, and the techs are spot on.

[Stu Bowie]

Great use of flash, to show up the detail and colours. I like the pose, together with the complimentary colours in the BG.

[Simon Bennett]

Very sharp aboout the face and I like the background too.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Mike:

This capture is quite pleasing to the eye. Your gentle BG colors compliment and the bird well. You did an excellent job with the fill flash since it isn't noticeable.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Agree about the slight head turn being needed, but still this is one wonderfull image, with lovely light, great detail, excellent BG, colors and perch. Congratulations!