Blue Grosbeak

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi

I was very excited when this bird showed up in Montezuma. W e had been pinned down for 5 consecutive days in our rental house as a tropical storm battered the area. Suddenly it appeared but a good way off. I tried desperately to get a decent hand held shot at 400mm and f5.6. This is the only shot which was reasonably sharp.

I have de-noised and detailed in Topaz; crop is heavy from 3888 jpeg; resized to 1024. Canon 40D 1/200 ISO 400 handheld.

It's such a lovely bird I thought I would post it anyway; I only saw once, and the property owner who is a keen birder had never seen one there.

Rich

[Sandra K. Mathews-Benham]

You're right, nature never seems to cooperate. . . However, it's far better to have this memory recorded than forego a shot because it wouldn't be perfect (thanks to digital, it didn't cost you anything--just the trip, the camera, etc.!). While it might not be perfect, I still thank you for sharing!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Rich Sorry about the weather you had, I'm sure it was frustrating !!!

At least you came up with an exciting catch Not much you could have done here, the cropping brings out all the little problem details !!! With a strong sharp base image you could actually crop a lot, not sure if you were able to use a tripod but would make a difference !!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Richard - Lovely Bird!!
Large crop has killed the IQ.

Nice one to see though!

[Dave Mills]

Good you got a record of the bird....

[Bill Dix]

Congrats on seeing this lovely bird. A soft image for your record files is better than none at all, which is where I stand with this species.

[Julie Brown]

Congrats on seeing this lovely bird. A soft image for your record files is better than none at all, which is where I stand with this species.

I agree with Bill.