Chickadee on autumnal backdrop.

[Daniel Cadieux]

A bit slow yesterday, but the Black-capped Chickadees were out in full force (so were the Ruby-crowned Kinglets but they refused to come out of the bushes!) I really wanted to use this very vibrant sumac's foliage as a backdrop so I placed a handful of seeds close-by to lure the birds in to place. I noticed they preferred this small twig and always posed in a way that is advantageous to vertical comps so I turned the camera over and waited for the next bird to hop on. Too bad about the wilted OOF leaf in LLC, but I'm quite happy with the colours.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @320mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +0.3 EC, natural light, handhled, full-frame.

[Harshad Barve]

Beautiful composition Daniel with great BG
I liked the way bird holds perch
TFS

[Dave Blinder]

Very nice Daniel, great definition and exposure on the little birdie, really love background too. I might try to clone out the OOF twigs in the background to smooth it out a bit. Very strong overall.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Like the pose, eye contact & composition. Bird stands out nicely against the colourfull BG. Great image!

[Joe Senzatimore]

Love everything about it. The clone suggestion is a valid one and I think a very small catchlight is called for. Just my taste.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, your amazing colourful BG outshines your subject here. No seriously, good exposure on the chickadee, lovely pose, and the vertical works well. Did I mention your colourful BG. Well captured.

[Arthur Morris]

Thinking, execution, BKGR colors, light, pose, and EXP are all superb. Another vote for doing something with the more distinct BKGR twigs; some 75% Clone Stamp work might do the trick quite well.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Were you in a blind?

[edgar-junior]

Nice eye contact like a lot the colors,BG,composition and detail ....;)

[denise ippolito]

Daniel, I really like the BG colors and feel that it sets this image apart from others. Nicely designed.

[Ed Cordes]

I really like these little guys. This one really pops against the unusual BG. Twigs mentioned.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Magic colors, nice pose and detail, love it...

[Daniel Cadieux]

ps: Were you in a blind?

Hey Artie. These guys are quite curious and tame...they will come and feed in your hand so no blind needed for them:).

[Dave Phillips]

love the bg colors Daniel......and the pose is quite "proper".
Did a ReMask and bg blur just for fun.....do love those colors sir!

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent shot, repost is even better. Love the SHR, BKGRD, pose, perch and everything else. TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Dave! Although I like seeing the distincting leaf patterns in my version I really like what you've done with your repost. Thanks for taking the time to do this, very nice :-)

[Simon Bennett]

I like the birds pose, and the perch and it's very sharp. Super background too.