Red-winged Blackbirds

[Robert Amoruso]

An intentional blur of Red-winged Blackbirds from Bosque del Apache NWR during my trip there a few weeks back.

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 600mm f/4 IS
1/20 sec, f/4
Mode: Manual
Metering: Morning. +1 compensation off of blue sky looking west set manually.
+6 stop ND filter used
ISO: 160

[Krijn Trimbos]

Excuisite! Love the effect the red wings made! Congrats

[denise ippolito]

Robert, This is absolutely stunning! The hint of BG and the red-wings are great. Beautifully blurred!

[James Salywoda]

Truly a beautiful image Robert......very very pleasing to the eyes. Congrats!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

very artistic...Love the effect the red wings!!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

This is very cool! I really like the light, blurring and several layers of birds.

[Keith Bauer]

Very cool image. Love the myriad patterns that are formed in the image.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Robert, When I see this type of image there are very few that really appeal to me. Between the lighting, bird's colors and just enough blur you've created a striking image.

[adrian dancy]

This looks simply beautiful

[Harshad Barve]

for me this is PRINT IT , HANG IT image
TFS

[Dave Leroy]

Good for you to think of this Robert. A really good idea which was executed extremely well. Dave

[Kiran Poonacha]

Wow.. great peice of art this.. TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice blur effect here, colors are great too. Impressive scene

[Linda Dulak]

Wow! I love this one! I normally don't like blurs, but this one is special because of all the red on the wings. Just enough sharpness to recognize the birds but nice blur to emphasize the red on the wings.

Linda

[Arthur Morris]

I normally love blurs and this is a spectacular one. I think that it could be improved by toning down the reds a bit... I love the fact that the focus is accurate and the birds are coming right at you. Was this at the south end?

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

Robert I would be very proud of this one. So does using a +6 stop ND filter mean that it was fairly bright on that morning?

[Nagesh Mula]

This is lovely Robert, great piece of art here. Congrats!!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Very very artsy Robert. You have a great vision. Loved everything about it. The red patches look much larger than they are because of the blur....well seen.

[Robert Amoruso]

I normally love blurs and this is a spectacular one. I think that it could be improved by toning down the reds a bit... I love the fact that the focus is accurate and the birds are coming right at you. Was this at the south end?

Thanks Artie. My goal was to get them coming at me and lock focus on the front of the flock as it broke from the ground. After 5 years I finally got one I really liked. Yes, south end of the Marsh Loop where you make the right turn. I specifically went looking for them there.

I did do one with the reds saturated less but this one seemed more graphic to me. Since it is a blur, no real detail to protect in the reds so I went for it.

[Robert Amoruso]

Robert I would be very proud of this one. So does using a +6 stop ND filter mean that it was fairly bright on that morning?

Craig,

It was very bright, probably around 9 to 9:30 AM which is one of the times I usually go to blurs anyway. The ND filter makes that possible w/o resorting to really small apertures.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Truly a masterpiece!
Lovely image Robert, can't get tired of seen this scene. Amazing.

[david cramer]

Beautiful image, and great use of the ND filter.