Mushroom topping.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I can't wait for some of the winter finches to show up, but in the meantime the chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers will suffice :-) When I stumbled upon a fallen log with a nice cluster of mushrooms on it I figured it had the potential of being a nice perch. I dragged it out into the sunlight, in a spot with a nice BG, placed some seeds within the spaces of the mushrooms, and low and behold the Black-capped Chickadees came down according to plan (so did a nuthatch).

Canon 40D + 100-400L @340mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/800s., f/6.3, ISO 640, -0.3 EC, natural light, handheld.

[Danny J Brown]

Great move, Daniel. The cluster of mushrooms makes the best perch I've seen in a long while. The chickadee is a real beauty as well - love the color on its side. I'm a little disappointed that its head is blending in with the dark side of the bokeh but the detail is still visible. I hope you took that little perch home with you for future shots (smile).

[Harshad Barve]

Nice control on exposure , sublime lighting and one beautiful perch , Beautiful image Daniel
TFS

[kenn threed]

Hi Daniel,

I should have commented on your other recent Chickadee (King of the Moss...) which was similarly excellent, but again you've done a great job with the exposure here. Beautiful highlights on the top of his head and also on the throat, without blowing out the white in the cheek. These guys are very difficult to expose this well with their extreme black and white. And also again I'd increase the brightness of the bg slightly to raise the contrast between his head and the dark bokeh on the left side.

I've looked thru your BPN Gallery btw... many excellent shots there.

best regards,

Kenn

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys!

Danny - That fallen log is about 7 feet long, and about 50 lbs (and quite wet and soggy)...hard to drag out of the woods for a long distance. However, I do know exactly where it is should I decide to take a small piece of it home :-)

Hey Kenn, thanks for taking a peek at my gallery - glad you like it!

[James Salywoda]

Such a beauty Daniel I like the diagonal variation in the bg well done.

[James Littlejohn]

Beautiful sharp image of one of my favourite birds. The perch looks great but I don't think I've ever seen a chickadee land on mushrooms before! I'm not an expert but if it's extremely atypical behaviour, I think it's a compromise that goes along with staging.
Edit: The lighting is beautiful!

[Suzanne Huot]

congratulations on such an inspired perch for your little chickadee

[Kiran Poonacha]

loved the perch here, nice pose, light and comp bhai...

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful sharp image of one of my favourite birds. The perch looks great but I don't think I've ever seen a chickadee land on mushrooms before! I'm not an expert but if it's extremely atypical behaviour, I think it's a compromise that goes along with staging.
Edit: The lighting is beautiful!

Hi James, thanks for your thoughts! Yes, this is something to be careful with and a very valid concern and it did cross my mind. However, with chickadees anything is possible and I've seen them perched on anything and everything as they forage along. It would not be impossible for a chickdee to land on this naturally fallen perch (granted, I did drag it out into the sunlight but it was already pointing up this way). I would hesitate to post a swallow, or a plover on top of this perch...even the nuthatch that I mentioned will probably not publicly see the light of day for the same reasons - but this little chickadee looks OK to me here:)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel...loved the perch and the shallow DOF. A slightly better HA is wishful thinking....knowing how nervous these guys are.

[Jim Crosswell]

Perfectly exposed image with a great BG. Well done Daniel!