Chickadee

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

With no HB's in my backyard, I adapted the multi-flash setup to resident songbirds last fall. Two shots were taken 1/10 second apart and merged in PS to create the final composite of a chickadee landing on a perch setup. Five flashes were directed at the perch to expand the potential target zone/landing area and one on the background. Hope to use the same setup with tanagers this summer in Ecuador.
1D Mk3 500mm f4 1/250 f22 IS0 500 Canon 580 EX flashes in manual mode 1/32 power
All comments welcome

[Troy Lim]

That is creative, I like that. It must be hard work for the setup. But end result is all worth it.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great result, Peter. I think the landing pose which make a great stand alone image with that lovely BG. The one detraction to me is the pruned part of the perch which may be worth tidying up . Good flash work.

[Bryan Erb]

Nice action captured here, with both birds sharp. Nicely done.

[Greg Basco]

Peter, this is pretty cool. I've started playing around with similar things here for fruit feeder birds but won't really be able to dedicate much time to it until the tour season ends in a couple of months. I think this kind of setup has a lot of potential.

I like the lighting in this one but I would prefer the straight shot of the flying bird without the composite as it's such a nice pose you caught, and I just like single shots better. BG looks pretty good, but they're always tricky as you know. For my taste, this one has a bit too much going on but it certainly still works.

Congrats on adapting the hummer setup to other uses!

Cheers,
Greg

[Seyed Babak Musavi]

What a very nice shot! ?I love action with completed sharp in both birds ,