Bully - An American Robin

[kenn threed]

Hi all,

This is our Bully Robin. He tries to intimidate our smaller birds sometimes, but he's really not so tough. We run him off when he tries to monopolize the mealworm dish. I throw raisins at him... which he retrieves forthwith... and then he leaves the little guys alone for awhile. :)

The sun was directly behind the camera and already getting pretty bright in a clear blue sky at 85am here this morning. I believe the perpendicular light kinda robbed me of some feather detail, but I do still like this shot somehow. It's full-frame horizontally, I just took a little (5% maybe) off the top to make it a 7x5 aspect ratio. Taken hand-held at a distance of about 8ft, which is right at MFD on this lightweight rig.


As always, any suggestions for improving the image would be appreciated.

Canon S3-IS Manual ISO100 F3.5 1/640 @50.4mm + 1.7x TC (roughly equivalent to 500mm on a real camera I think... I still don't know how to best report our focal lengths in a meaningful way).

Kenn

Kenn & Temple
Backyard Birders in St.Louis, MO
http://kenn3d.smugmug.com

[Randy Stout]

Kenn:

Sharp, well exposed, nice composition, interesting perch, good head angle. There is a bit of background noise, but I don't find it objectionable.

Very nice, regardless of equipment used.

Randy

[Dave Leroy]

Nice composition and a real good job on the colours. Nice and sharp as well. Looking forward to more. Dave

[James Littlejohn]

Lovely closeup of this robin, Kenn. The light does look a bit too direct. I think they're one bird where detail is easier to catch with overcast or side light.

Great work with the Canon S3. I shot with a Canon S5 for about a year before I bought a dSLR. If I shot at low ISOs and had shots that required little cropping, I got good results. So I appreciate that conditions for great shots are quite a bit narrower for P&S cameras. Your titmouse and eastern bluebird shots look amazing! I never came close to that with my S5.

For focal length equivalent, just multiply by 6.

[Krijn Trimbos]

The BG, detail, colours, BG, light and eye contact are excellent. I could see this with a bit more headturn towards you, a different perch and a slightly different crop (a bit from the top and a bit more added to the left). Apart from that great shot!

[kenn threed]

Thanks to all for your comments and encouragement,

James - We do also shoot with an S5 (it's Temple's camera, but we both use either whenever), they are more alike than different. For those who aren't familiar with them, these are small-sensor cams with many limitations... slow AF, visible noise even at base ISOs, limited resolving power, restricted shutter speeds, and all these factors tend to get worse quickly in less than ideal light. But they provide full manual controls and can be operated very much like a DSLR. So we've kinda developed our technique around shooting mainly birds which are near and dear to us. We shoot in Manual mode, mostly at close range, and use comparitively long focal lengths which allow keeping crops to a minimum. All of which taken together can yield very nice results... sometimes. We likely have to work a bit harder at getting those results, at least in terms of tossing more shots which don't make the cut. But we enjoy spending a great deal of time shooting our birds and have collected some pretty acceptable photos of 61 different species (so far) right in our own backyard. :)

Here's the kit:


Thanks again to all for looking, and for helping us to improve our photos.

Kenn

Kenn & Temple
Backyard Birders in St.Louis, MO
http://kenn3d.smugmug.com

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the light, BG, eye contact and angle. Another vote for a slight crop off the top.

[James Salywoda]

A real beauty Kenn great bg and shot it must be nice getting that many species from your yard... Good Stuff!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

A really nice bird. I also would crop a tad on top and sharpen the eye a bit more. I see no noise on BG.