OK, I have been commenting and posting only a little. It seems that time is just not available enough to catch up on what I want to do. I really hope I can find time to post more images.
In any case, I created this image in my back yard last winter. I wish the BG were a bit greener, but that was the tree I had to work with.
1D MK2 with 500 F4 and 2 X TC with fill flash. Evaluative metering at ISO 500 with EV -1/3 and f8 with 1/125 on tripod. Fill Flash at EV - 1 1/3. Cropped a bit from the left.
Thanks Max. I actually did make a Christmas Card out of this Cardinal. However, I cut and pasted the bird onto a much better BG. I didn't post it here as it would be photo art as I moved elements form one image to another. I have just posted it in the Out of the Box forum.