Bush tits

[Desmond Chan]

D300 70-300VR @300 hand-held. Manual exposure mode, all natural light. ISO 400 f5.6 1/640s.

Cropped from horizontal format and then some :o

Original is under-exposed by a stop. It was dark to the eyes in the actual scene. I'm happy that I still got the eyes pretty sharp somewhere. The image was brightened by adjusting with Levels after the fact, NR and sharpened. But, I cloned nothing, I blurred nothing.

Other than the usual techs stuff, what do you think about this image?

Thank you for looking!

[Kerry Perkins]

Desmond, I think it's quite nice. It does seem a bit soft on my monitor and could maybe stand a bit more sharpening. Did you consider lowering the staturation of the greens a bit? This could make the bg a little more subdued. I do like the head angles and eyes. Good job on the color rendition also. If the large blade of grass on the left weren't there this would be even nicer. Thanks for posting!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I like the pose on both of the birds. You also got sharp eyes on both of them too which is very nice.
I like all the glass blades except the left one that block the lower birds, for this image it helps in showing the birds in their environment.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Desmond - like the poses and sharp eyes (well done). I might crop the OOF area off the bottom- think it would improve the image.
I dont mind the grass on the LHS - would be better if it didn't intersect the birds tail - but sometimes you gotta take what you get.
I like it.
:)

[Jenny Wren]

Hi Desmond,

I like the sharp eyes...and love the background. I don't mind the blade of grass on LHS. Maybe, as Lance has already mentioned, take out the foreground a tad.

The only thing I don't like about this image is the title you have given it!;)

JW

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Desmond,
Two for the price of one...I like the composition, image and capture...I like the head angles and sharp eyes...I agree with Mr. Peters on cropping from the bottom of the frame up to the out of focus leaf in the foreground; also I would recommend on eliminating the two diagonal reeds on the lower right hand side of the frame, my eyes keep going there...congratulations, well done...:cool:

[Gail Spitler]

Hi Desmond - first let me congratulate you on getting an image with 2, count 'em 2, Bushtits. Getting one Bushtit to sit still long enough for a photograph is difficult enough. We could wish that there was a bit of implied interaction between the birds, but you have take what you can get.
I agree that the bg has too many diagonal lines that are too strong, thus distracting the eye of this viewer. Lots of suggestions about what you might do about that from the others.
I suspect you like the challenge of difficult avian subjects and that we will be seeing more bushtit images in the future. I hope so and am looking forward to them.
Gail

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Desmond

I'm glad your going for this type images, they are much more difficult but so rewarding. This is very close !!!

About the only element I find distracting is the green shaft going through the birds, others are fine and blend well with the bg I like the sharpness on the eyes, rest is just fine as presented, actually wouldn't like it any sharper.

Surprised at the quality after being under one stop, sort of shows what the D300 is capable of doing !!! Excellent image !!!!!

[Desmond Chan]

The only thing I don't like about this image is the title you have given it!;)

Haha...actually, I just thought bushtit was two words. By the way, the two birds here are female :)

I suspect you like the challenge of difficult avian subjects and that we will be seeing more bushtit images in the future. I hope so and am looking forward to them.
Gail

I read that bushtits like to go out together in group as large as 40 of them. So if you don't get the first one, you still have 39 times to try :D

For this one, I just happened to stumble upon two of them perching close to each other. No, there were not 40 of them this time.

Here's another bushtit record shot taken last summer, if I remember correctly (cropped):

I'm glad your going for this type images...About the only element I find distracting is the green shaft going through the birds...

And I thought my opinion about bird-on-a-stick-in-a-clean background kind of shot was quite well-known here :D

The shaft is my biggest concern, too.



Thanks for the encouragements and suggestions, everyone !!