With the help of a friend I met here on this forum !! I managed to get some dippers the last couple of days of course when the light was best my 500mm was still in for repair so the 100-400mm had to do the job. The camera used was the 7D at ISO400 1/200 at f/8 fillflash teh background is the little creek in the last evening (back) -light. I wish the bird would have perched more often there and would have turned around ... but sadly this was not the case. This was the only time it used this particular stone while I was there the last couple of days ... and it did so because his favorite spot was blocked by dogs... something I usually don't really like. But in this case I was exploiting the situation.
Thanks for looking Geraldo and thanks for your help meu amigo !!
Good patience on your part. Nice bird and perch. Although it did not turn around it did give you a perfect glance-back head turn. Opening up the lens more would have helped blur the BG even more for better separation with your subject. I'd like a bit more room above (and then at right to retain the aspect ratio), and I'd run some NR to the BG.
Daniel, I agree fully with the f-stop but the AF and -me too- struggled heavily to get a sharp eye of the bird hence I went for the f 8
Thanks for your comments.
Geraldo
I recognise that bird ;), always a pleasure to help a visitor to the UK.
I like the pose and colour of the background water here. The whites look a little hot on my monitor and I know what a tricky exposure those breast feathers are. As Axel says it should noit be to much of a problem to do some recovery there. I would probably clone out the water highlight to the right of the birds feet.
Thanks for all your comments, and yes I just checked teh whites they look a little hot on this out of the camera jpg ... but luckily the whites of the raw file are on the safe side.