Marsh Wren

[Ben Egbert]

Peone prairie is a wetlands just north of my home in Spokane Wa. I get up there during the wet spring months as much as I can. This little guy was just flitting around from reed to reed and singing his heart out. I have several shots, even one with his eyes open, but I preferred this because it struck a certain feeling that he was giving the song his all.

50D, 500f4, 1.4X at f5.6 1/250 sec, ISO200 from a Gitzo/Acraswiss tripod/sidekick attached.
Light processing in CS3, heavy crop.

[Jim Buescher]

Sweet shot. I agree, the closed eye works well in this image. Sharpness, exposure and BG are all good, maybe more DOF would've helped on the cattail, but I'd take a marsh wren on any perch in the open like this!

[Ben Egbert]

Sweet shot. I agree, the closed eye works well in this image. Sharpness, exposure and BG are all good, maybe more DOF would've helped on the cattail, but I'd take a marsh wren on any perch in the open like this!

Thanks Jim. I should have dropped ISO to 400 and stopped down a bit. I have found that singing birds need at least 1/200 to freeze motion. I was borderline for that (some shots in the series have motion blur). I also shoot burst to catch these moments.

[Subharghya]

Excellent image for me for two reasons - firstly it's a marsh wren and secondly this pose is toooooo cute :) Really Fantastic Shot

[David Thomasson]

Great singing pose, and the closed eye makes it an A+. I adjusted white balance and did a little selective darkening of perch and background. Wonderful capture!

[Ben Egbert]

Great singing pose, and the closed eye makes it an A+. I adjusted white balance and did a little selective darkening of perch and background. Wonderful capture!

Thank you so much for the comments and the retouch. Which way did you go on WB? I have not done the 50D magenta correction yet.

[Ben Egbert]

Excellent image for me for two reasons - firstly it's a marsh wren and secondly this pose is toooooo cute :) Really Fantastic Shot

Glad you liked it. thanks for the comment, it means a lot.

[David Thomasson]

Thank you so much for the comments and the retouch. Which way did you go on WB? I have not done the 50D magenta correction yet.

In Photoshop, I set the white dropper (curves or levels, either will do) at 240.240.240 and clicked on the brightest area of the throat.

[Ben Egbert]

In Photoshop, I set the white dropper (curves or levels, either will do) at 240.240.240 and clicked on the brightest area of the throat.

Thanks, much appreciated.

[Harshad Barve]

Fantatsic image , I would love to have something like this in my collection
Repost is better
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

I loved the second repost, all said above, congrats....

[Matt Vosniak]

Ben,

Sweet shot. The closed eye and wide open beak really gives the impression of this guy giving you his all. Well timed!!

[sree.kumar.h]

Brilliant! Like your composition, Ben. Who says catch-light is a must ;).