Cactus Wren on (of all things) a cactus. It's funny, but I rarely see them on cactus.
Canon 7D
Canon EF400 f/5.6L
1/500sec f/6.3 ISO 100
Crop, S/H, Sharpening in CS5
My State Bird
Cactus Wren on (of all things) a cactus. It's funny, but I rarely see them on cactus.
Canon 7D
Canon EF400 f/5.6L
1/500sec f/6.3 ISO 100
Crop, S/H, Sharpening in CS5
A real beauty, Ian! I really like how we get to see all the detail in the breast feathers - the patterns and different tones are amazing. Nice HA and eye contact. The blue sky and cactus add a nice balance to the image and everything but the far end of the tail is nicely crisp. I think you could take about 1/3 to 1/2 off the top of the frame, moving the bird's head into the upper 1/3 since he is centered horizontally. I keep wishing I could see the rest of his tail feathers but I'm guessing we'd miss the eye contact and that's no good. Well done!
Hi Ian - good HA and eye contact and nice detail throughout - agree with Jules cropping suggestions.
Now it could just be my screen - but to me the blue sky looks a little unnatural in colour - anything to do with altitude?? Or could just be my screen - interested to see what others say.
ISO 100??
Thanks Jules and Lance.
Yes, Jules, I probably should have shot for some more DOF.
Lance, I'm not sure what you mean about the sky. I'm not at high altitude here and it looks OK to me on my monitor. Is it the totally cloudless Phoenix sky that is bothersome? Yes, ISO 100 -- was that a bad choice? That may be why I lost some DOF -- I could have stopped down a bit more for the bird's tail and upped the ISO a bit.
Hi Ian - in that case I would say I need to recalibrate my screen - no clouds is oK - Looks quite purple ish n my screen.Originally Posted by Ian Cassell
Lance, I took a second look and I didn't see any purple overcast to it - but that could be MY screen! I do think he could lighten the BG a bit with a levels adjustment, pushing the high and midtone sliders a bit to the left - that might look more natural with the light color of the cactus - but my guess is his sky really IS that blue. ;)
Hi Ian, nice shot. The sky looks good on my monitor, but I also wear bifocals;). Like the pose and eye contact. I am wondering if a shutter speed of 500 was fast enough? I find it hard to get smaller birds to hold still for that shutter speed. You may have wanted to kick the iso up in order to increase your shutter speed. Overall very nice image. In a few months will be very jealous of your warm weather. Would love to see more.
Thanks, folks. Well, I had just re-calibrated my monitor a couple of days ago, so I was starting to worry I screwed up :) . Yes, Jules, the sky really IS that blue here :)
Gary, I don't usually use such a slow shutter speed when I HH, but I had been shooting on a pod and forgot to reset it -- I really am not seeing motion blur on this one, though.
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