Blue Jays absolutley love shelled peanuts and are readily attratced to perches by luring them with those. Only problem is that they are very fast in retrieving them (almost the instant they land) and the result is most often a photo of a Blue Jay with the treat already in the bill - that is if it has not already flown away! ... Since I'm not a big fan of the "obviously store-bought peanut in the wild bird's bill" look I like to fully wedge them deep into the perch's crevices to make the jays work harder for them. If your chosen perch does not have such crevices you can dig out or drill holes and stuff the shelled peanuts in them...this allows me to get more "natural" images of this strikingly plumaged species!
Canon 40D + 100-400L at 330mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering (+1 stop, histogram checked), 1/250s., f/6.3, ISO 800.
Very nice Daniel. This really shows off the the range of blues on these birds. The neutral BG sets the bird off nicely. I like the perch too, and, of course, the nice paranoid look back to see who is watching :p. The only suggestion I can make is that the eye looks a tad dim and I wonder if a slight brightening might bring it out and give a stronger focal point.
My first two thoughts were 1) nice blue jay image ( I don't have any really nice ones)
2) 1/4 stop too dark for me. So, I have to agree with Mr. Busby on this one.
Thanks for the tip on how to slow them down. In Michigan, they are pretty darn flighty, won't tolerate any close approach, even at my feeders.
Nice job Daniel!! Don't see many blue jay images around here. Perfect pose, BG, and comp. If you brighten the eye more, I would brighten only the top half, as it is a reflection of the sky and is usually brighter than the bottom half (hope that makes sense :))
Hey Dan, thanks for sharing your info on keeping them on a perch for a little longer. Just love the pose here, HA nailed. I feel you have the exposure spot on, it looks great from this side, and overall nice and sharp too. Good detail throughout, and just love the different blues on the Jay. Well captured.
Daniel, I appreciate the work you do with that short lens of yours. Thanks also for the background, and I mean that in two senses: first, the smooth, simple colors behind the jay (how'd you do it?), and second, the story about how you set the scene.
Blue Jay.
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