Balancing Act

[Kurt Bowman]

When I first started photographing this House Sparrow, he kept flapping his wings when he landed. I thought he might have been bathing in the creek below and was drying them off. Once he stopped, I noticed he wasn't sitting up on his perch but laying on it. I thought it was weird, but didn't notice his missing foot until after I came home and downloaded the images. I felt sorry for him, but also was glad to see how well he has adapted and is surviving. Canon 7D Canon 300mm w//1.4 tc manual exp 1/500 manual ap at f/6.3 ISO 100

[Fabs Forns]

Nice capture and great to get the injured leg to show so well. It seems like he's ding well :)
The use of the teleconverter took away some of the detail in the plumage and I would remove the magenta chromatic aberration off the catch light. No reason to go ISO 100. I used the 7D today at ISO 800 with great results and you can get more shutter speed or depth of field.

[Arthur Morris]

Interesting image nicely framed. The bird reminds me of my late Dad. He lost his right arm on Okinawa in WW II and wound up pulling suitcases of the shelves at Roebling Luggage in NYC for 30 years with his left arm, that after the generals wanted to ampute it. He had no elbow joint. He was hit 13 times with 70mm machine gun fire and survived. Tough SOB for sure.

[Kurt Bowman]

Thanks for the commmet Fabs. The reason I was on ISO 100, is I am trying something different. I normally shoot in AV mode about 80% and manual about 20%. I found out the 7D has an auto ISO mode. So I am trying to shoot in Manual mode selecting my aperature and shutter speed and having the camera select my ISO to see how the results turn out. So far, I think they are turning out pretty good. It is like shooting in AV and TV modes simultaniously. I decieded to try this because of the constant changing environment when shooting wildlife (especially birds) going from branch to brach, in and out of lght and then the clouds on top of that chaning the light constantly.