Lazuli Bunting

[James Salywoda]

Lazuli Bunting
Southern California

I was happy to find a cooperative Lazuli Bunting willing to respond to calls the perch was his choice.:)

Nikon D300S AFS 600 F4 1.4 TC
1/1250 ISO 640 F8

Thanks For Looking

Jim

[Jean Chang]

That's a beauty! I love the singing position with his little beak pointed up.

Did you use a recording or are you just good at bird calls?

Lovely shot!

Jean

[Ramon M. Casares]

Wonderfull natural moment, great BG, light and detail. Nice comp too. I would have tried a wider aperture to get the OOF leaves even more OOF. Congratulaitons!

[James Salywoda]

Did you use a recording or are you just good at bird calls?

Lovely shot!

Jean

Thanks! He was responding to recordings.

[arash_hazeghi]

very beautiful

[Juan Aragonés]

Just a superb image James!

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful bird james bhai, nice pose, details, light and perch...

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

This is just gorgeous James.!!! I have not had the opportunity of seeing one but what a thrill it must have been for you to get this image. Great color, singing pose, sharpness excellent detail and composition. Love this !!!

[denise ippolito]

Jim, Excellent details and colors. The pose is fantastic. Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Lovely pose James, and just love the light in this. I like the colours on the bunting, especially on his head. Overall, nice and sharp, and I like how the bunting and perch are seperated from the BG.

[John Ippolito]

Beautiful capture, James. Love the singing pose, comp and colors. Lovely image.

[Doug Brown]

Awesome Jim! The same place we got the Blue Grosbeak? My speaker arrives today. :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

This one's a winner James. beautiful pose, light and colors. The OOF BG leaves are giving excellent sense of the third dimension.

[Colin Knight]

The background is rather harsh. I agree with Ramon about opening up a bit, it also could have saved you a high ISO, not that 640 is that bad anyway. But lower is better.

Killer pose there, love the colors and sharpness! Very, very nice.

[LouBuonomo]

That is stellar.. color comp and singing !!

[Mike Milicia]

Big congrats on a wonderful image!
Love the singing pose, comp, and excellent exposure and detail!

The BG habitat does not bother me as its intersection with the bird is minimal.
The only thing I can see that might have improved this would have been softer light to reduce
the shadows and contrast in the BG.

Regarding the aperture, don't know the distance to the subject here but I'm assuming it's not all that far unless this is a huge crop. According to DOFMaster, for a D300s with 800mm at 50 ft, opening up to f/5.6 (wide open) would have changed the DOF behind the focus point from 0.18 ft to 0.13 ft, for a difference of about 0.6 inches. Doesn't seem like that would have made much difference in the BG?

[Morkel Erasmus]

this pops nicely Jim...awesome colours and pose...exposure looks spot on and BG not bad for me :)

[Leandro Herrainz]

great moment! exclent light, really nice BG and bird!

[Harshad Barve]

yet another winner from you James
TFS