This bird tonight simply liked feeding in an upside down posture and was busy as could be. After 15 minutes of crouching down to get a good angle, he finally looked up for a split second and I managed a couple of frames in beautiful light. OOF background is grasses in the marsh about 50 yeards behind the subject.
Nikon D300, 500 VR, TC14EII, ISO 800, F10, 1/400, UniWB, CW Metering, -0.3 EV compensation
Jim, this is fantastic!
Beautiful BG, great detail, and the yellows look perfect.
The only thing I would've like more, is if that brown (dead?) thistle were not there.
Jim,
That's an interesting view on it...I hadn't thought of it that way. Just to clarify though, I wasn't saying I'd remove it, but instead that I'd rather it wasn't there. There is a big difference. I do agree with showing things the way ther really are :)
Either way, it's a beautiful shot.
This is an outstanding picture! Love the composition and progression of vegetation. The only thing I would do is remove the small highlight from the bird's beak. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice shot Jim. The branch, pose, and bg are excellent. Did you sharpen the head a bit? I ask because the branch and the head seem in sharper focus than the body.
I did no additional sharpening on the head with the exception of the eye.
I think it's a simple matter of DOF.....I was as at minimum focus distance and perhaps I should have focused on the body rather than the head as it may have gotten more withing the thin DOF? It was breezy and the bird was moving around for the couple of frames that I got so I basically locked focus before this frame and laid off the focus and just shot when it was time.