Cedar Waxwing

[Terry Olmsted]

My first of this year. Nice to be posting again.

Canon 40D 400mm f5.6L 1/1600s ISO 320 ec +2; partial metering; one-shot af; hand held

[ChasMcRae]

Nice color on the bird itself but not a fan of white backgrounds normally, but you got the xposure of the bird correct despite the background.
Acute angle always a problem with these birds have preferred the tail be clear.
Im glad you can handhold a 400mm -I gave up a long time ago.
Chas.

[Randy Stout]

Terry:

I think Chas. covered it well. The waxwing has such soft coloration, that I do think they do better against a softer BG when available. Tail merge noted, as was shooting angle.
I might give him a little more room at the top and to left. I think adding to the top a bit might reduce the impression of shooting up so much.
Hope to see more!

Randy

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks very much for your comments, Charles and Randy - The compositional comments are particularly helpful to me. I was actually torn with which cedar waxwing image to post - here's the other one. If I was about 20 feet tall it would really help :)

[Dennis Binda]

sometimes a white BG is all you can get Terry but you did well under these circumstances.

cheers, Dennis

[Daniel Cadieux]

I personally think the waxwing would have benefitted from some fill-flash, or some more EC (I know the 40D does not go higher than +2 in AV or TV, but you can push it more with manual - this would also have given you a "truer" high-key image). Good to see you posting again...hope to see some more :-)

[Terry Olmsted]

Daniel,
Thanks for the tips - time to buy the better beamer :)