Rock Wren

[DarrenMcKenna]

Rock Wren
Salpinctes obsoletus



Canon 40D
Canon EF 500L IS +1.4x
1/1250
F8
ISO: 200
Spot Metering
430 EX with Better Beamer set @ -1/3, Manual exposure
Stokes Birdjam

Shot at "Hays Hoodo Badlands" (Alberta) during harsh mid day sun, fill flash really saved the day. In the badlands there are cactus plants and tons of various cacti. Bentonite clay and sandstone cliffs all full of crevices, cracks, rocks and hoodoos, plenty of hiding spots. I selected a couple nice spots I would have liked them to land (perch) but to no avail. They kept landing in the same area devoid of greenery.








darrenmckenna.com

[Ilija Dukovski]

Actually I like the uniformity of color here, set a nice feel for the habitat. The light is harsh
but the composition is very nice.
Wish the bill was more uniform, there's a bright spot and gray area that distract.
I like it!

[DarrenMcKenna]

Wish the bill was more uniform, there's a bright spot and gray area that distract.

thanks, I chose not to clone that out and leave the image as is. Even the poop stayed in. :)

[Ilija Dukovski]

thanks, I chose not to clone that out and leave the image as is. Even the poop stayed in. :)

Oh yeah, there's the "white wash". Nice :D Why not clone the bright spot in the bill?

[DarrenMcKenna]

Why not clone the bright spot in the bill?

This is the way he presented himself to me and I chose to leave all his blemishes.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great, I respect that.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Hi Darren, I like the bird's pose, the sharpness/detail and the bg of this image, but one thing I don't like is the large out-of-focused rock in the foreground, what do you think?

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Darren, this is a lovely image. Not only by the complementary bg colors but the pose and details.
I am a 3:2 fan and if I keep it as a principle the OOF rock foreground element would be heavily clipped by the crop. This is just my personal preference. :)

Szimi

[Alexander Koenders]

Great light and pose. The onley thing I would take out are the white spots behind the bird.

[DarrenMcKenna]

Hi Darren, I like the bird's pose, the sharpness/detail and the bg of this image, but one thing I don't like is the large out-of-focused rock in the foreground, what do you think?

thank you, I could have stopped down and brought the OOF rock into focus but then that would also bring into focus the canyon wall in the BG which I did not want. So f8 was my mind set for this image.

[DarrenMcKenna]

Darren, this is a lovely image. Not only by the complementary bg colors but the pose and details.
I am a 3:2 fan and if I keep it as a principle the OOF rock foreground element would be heavily clipped by the crop. This is just my personal preference. :)

Szimi

thank you, I like the 4:3 ratio and I do think the native 3:2 works well also. I do work my compositions to a 4:3 aspect.

[Ramon M. Casares]

The use of flash here would've helped a lot as the light was not the ideal, I would suggest to crop from the bottom to eliminate the OOF rocks. Nice BG, perch and pose.
Congratulations!

[DarrenMcKenna]

The use of flash here would've helped ...

thanks, but I did use fill flash :confused:

[DarrenMcKenna]

Here is a sanitized version, personally I prefer the original.

[Ramon M. Casares]

thanks, but I did use fill flash :confused:

Sorry Darren, my mistake :) , still, more flash power would've probably eliminated the remaining shadows. Repost woithout the OOF rocks looks better to me. Congratulations!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

When I looked at the original image I was wondering about removing the OOF rock. After seeing the repost I prefer the original composition but like the removed whitewash and spot on the bill. The bird looks sharper in the original post.