Juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

[Daniel Cadieux]

From my parents cottage last week. The whole sapsucker family was frequenting this spot, and so were many wasps, bees, flies, a few hummingbirds, and a red squirrel. The drill wells were little higher than I prefer, so I grabbed a 12 ft stepladder and stood near the top of it for a better eye-level angle.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/100s., f/6.3, ISO 800, -0.3 EC, on-board fill-flash at -1 FEC (fixed resulting steel-eye in PS), NR to BG. Just about FF.

P.S. Just noticed that there is a faint orangish OOF vertical line touching the head that needs to go:)

[Joe Senzatimore]

Good idea with the ladder. Fine exposure and detail. Would opt for a different crop as I find the perch a bit overpowering. Just my taste.

[Michael Zajac]

Nice exposure and sharpness.Well captured.

[denise ippolito]

Daniel, The composition and the details look good. I think you did a great job w/ the eye.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Although the trunk is more than the classic 1/3 proportion for a 'woodpecker' shot, I think the natural history value showing all the holes makes the trunk almost as interesting as the bird.

Therefore, I would be inclined to keep it.

The orange streak is subtle enough that is doesn't bother me much.

Good to see you back. Got to watch out for those ladders though!

Cheers

Randy

[Hendri Venter]

Lovely image. All your hard work to go and fetch the ladder certainly paid of Daniel.

[Arthur Morris]

I too like the basic COMP. Were you hand holding on top of a 12 foot ladder at 1/100 sec???

[Daniel Cadieux]

Randy, that's what I was thinking about when including lots of drill-well holes to the comp - glad you like it!

Artie, yes! Not quite on top of the ladder, but rather from the second rung from the top (I guess that's pretty close to the top:)). I did secure the ladder to another tree and had my shoulder against that tree's trunk for added support. Another thing I should mention is that although I am not normally a "machine gun" type photographer, I did employ that technique this time around whenever the HA was good as I knew I'd likely have a few too many soft images from my "perch".

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the explanation Dan. You did well in a difficult situation.

[Glenda Simmons]

Very well done. A great job from the ladder. Unfortunately, I am on step stools and ladders alot, since I am under 5 foot, for even normal shots. I lost a fingernail this year when the step stool slid out and my 100-400 slammed my finger :confused:. I kept the lens from harm, though. :)