Eastern Phoebe

[Jason G. Harrison]

Took this image back on a chilly morning this past spring while staking out an active Coopers Hawk nest. The Phoebe came in and landed on a lone branch that was lit up with the monring sun. It fluffed itself all up, I assume in an effort to keep warm.

Taken with a D300, 600VR, 1.4tc, f/7.1, ISO 200, 1/160th SS



Disclaimer: I did removed some distracting branches on this image. An ethical hurdle I still stumble across at times. Never before did I do this, but I see its merits on some shots. This one, it for sure helped out. My large print contains the branches, for presentation here, I removed them.

Hope you enjoyed.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I can see why you like this Jason. :) Cute little bird. May I suggest a couple of improvements (for future)? Or at least those are some things IMHO are noteworthy.

- HA is a little off
- Angle is just a tad steep
- While probably not that big a deal, but at least for me the dark BG tree (I guess) is a little dominant
- I feel it is a little too sharp as presented (probably subjective)

Overall though I quite like this image though and it has a such nice monochromatic feel to it. :)

[Brian Barcelos]

Other than the sharpening (Looks o.k. on my monitor), Akos is spot on. I know these are hard to get too and I'd keep this one if it were mine. Light is sweet and exposure is great.

Did you get any of the Coopers? I'd love to see them.

[Jason G. Harrison]

Yea, could not help on the angle, though it was just about a foot or two above my eye level. It stayed there for a few moments and then gone, I believe I got 3 images of it before it left. The dark bg is indeed part of a tree, even though it looks like an entire tree, it really is just part of one.

As to the Coopers Hawk...do I have some images of them! Mating shots, several of those, hunting, eating, nesting, perched, etc...spent about 3 weeks observing them during their most active times. I enjoyed that a great deal. I will be posting those later:D

[Harshad Barve]

lovely image of cute bird ,
Akos is spot on here
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Amazing detail, sharpness is actually just fine on my screen. HA and steep angle has been mentioned but overall a very nice shot and def a keeper.TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with great detail. If you have been able to take two large steps to your right, most of the problems (the poor head angle, the bird angled away, and the big black tree in the BKGR) would have been eliminated....

IAC, TFS.

[Raymond Barlow]

Nice image Jason, it does look a litte too sharp, and possibly too tight in the frame, but a very cool shot regardless.