Great Spotted Woodpecker, Hokkaido

[Tobias Hayashi]

This is my first attempt at posting an image to this forum, not sure how its going to work. Linked from flickr. This woodpecker was taken in eastern Hokkaido, Japan, whilst wandering through a snow-filled forest following a White-backed Woodpecker.

Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM, Canon Extender EF 1.4X II. ISO 400, f4.5, 1/400 handheld. Noise reduction, sharpening and levels/saturation.

Comments welcome. Hope this posts right.

Oh, and I am an Australian teenager living in Japan, by way of an introduction. Might post something more detailed later to the appropriate forum.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Tobias! Very nice first post. I like the light, trunk and sharpness. I might put the bird higher in the frame, tone down the whites and try to get more details in the blacks.

I fixed the link, in Flickr, just right-click on the image in the right size and copy the link and then paste it here using the yellow 'insert image' button above the text box. Please post images that are not exceed 1024 pixels horizontally and 800 pixels vertically. Keep them coming!

[Julie Brown]

Hello Tobias. I like the details on the bird and the trunk with the lichen. Nicely blurred background too. :)

[Leo Berzins]

Welcome to BPN Tobias. You will get lots of constructive feedback here rather than just the standard "Great shot!" comments. Be sure to check out the other forums such as the Educational Resources.

Great looking bird, nice pose, perch and informative but non-distracting background.
I'm not qualified to add any technical suggestions to Axel's. He doesn't miss much with his prolific contributions to this site.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Welcome, and what a great image, love the bird and the trunk,
agree with Axel, I would add that a bit better Head Angle would
make the image even better. Hope to see many more, we don't see
many images from Japan here.

[Arthur Morris]

All excellent stuff above. I love this image; it would be killer with a better head angle... Do see the Head Angle Police thread in Tutorials and Education Resources.... The bird, the colors, and the BKGR are so, so sweet but a poor HA is almost always fatal as it is here.

[subhrashis]

I love this image, the back ground really makes the bird stand out, lovely colors on the bird, and the overall color scheme is very pleasant! I only wish the bird could be captured a little higher in the tree, beside the lovely lichen, that would make it even better!

Teen ages are great times to be out in nature chasing birds, as I can attest(I'm in 2nd yr of college..)! There's so much to learn that makes you a better person...