Kiskadee and Red-winged Blackbird spat

[Roy Priest]

This was taken during a fabulous workshop run by Alan Murphy in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He kindly allowed me to use his Nikon D3. Unfortunately this was taken in the rain.

Nikon D3
Lens: VR 500mm F/4G
Focal Length: 500mm
Aperture: F/4
Shutter Speed: 1/1600s
Exposure Comp.: -0.7EV
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 1600

[Paul Guris]

Great pose, great action, great perch. Love it.

[Marsha Zangroniz]

Lovely low key saturation. You don't need sun to make a terrific image!:)

[Julie Kenward]

Alan's the one that stages the beautiful branches to attract the birds, right? I love his work! And, despite the less than perfect conditions I would say you did quite well.

For my taste, I'd take out the one flowered branch that falls out of the bottom frame. I feel it pulls the viewer's eye down and you want it up where all the action is!

Nice and soft - even the blackbird doesn't feel overly processed - a great interaction between the two as well. Lots to love here, Roy!

[Alan Lillich]

Great action shot. I agree with the comment about the lower branch. I think I would also try to change the purple smudge in the ULC to green to be less intrusive. I think the rain was probably a good thing, letting you get better detail in the Blackbird.

[Myer Bornstein]

Like it and I agree with the above comments

[Peter Farrell]

Great capture of this interaction. I like everything about it.
I do agree with removing the lowest part of the branch, but only noticed it after reading Julies comments.
Peter

[Chris Baker]

Very nice Roy, I also agree with the above but it's just a little more icing on an already well iced cake!

[Ben_Sadd]

Great interaction!

It is fantastic as it is, but I wonder if you could perhaps boost contrast on the kiskadee's head or sharpen a little more to give it just that extra punch.

[Bill Dix]

Great action shot; sharp and well captured. Having never seen the two together, I guess I never realized the difference in size between the Kiskadee and the RWBB. Agree about the lowest flower; otherwise a terrific shot.

[Roy Priest]

Great pose, great action, great perch. Love it.

Paul, thank you very much

Lovely low key saturation. You don't need sun to make a terrific image!:)

Marsha, it's unfortunate as the Kiskadee has a little dirt on it's belly. It did brighten up from time to time.

[Roy Priest]

Alan's the one that stages the beautiful branches to attract the birds, right? I love his work! And, despite the less than perfect conditions I would say you did quite well.

For my taste, I'd take out the one flowered branch that falls out of the bottom frame. I feel it pulls the viewer's eye down and you want it up where all the action is!

Nice and soft - even the blackbird doesn't feel overly processed - a great interaction between the two as well. Lots to love here, Roy!

Julie, yes, Alan is the master and I highly recommend his workshops. I learned so much in a short time and almost all the birds were lifers for me.

Great action shot. I agree with the comment about the lower branch. I think I would also try to change the purple smudge in the ULC to green to be less intrusive. I think the rain was probably a good thing, letting you get better detail in the Blackbird.

Thanks Alan

Like it and I agree with the above comments

Thanks Myer

Great capture of this interaction. I like everything about it.
I do agree with removing the lowest part of the branch, but only noticed it after reading Julies comments.
Peter

Thanks Peter

Very nice Roy, I also agree with the above but it's just a little more icing on an already well iced cake!

Thanks Chris

Great interaction!

Thanks Ben

It is fantastic as it is, but I wonder if you could perhaps boost contrast on the kiskadee's head or sharpen a little more to give it just that extra punch.

I'll have a look at doing that, thanks for the suggestion.

Great action shot; sharp and well captured. Having never seen the two together, I guess I never realized the difference in size between the Kiskadee and the RWBB. Agree about the lowest flower; otherwise a terrific shot.

Thanks Bill.

[John Chardine]

Oustanding Roy. I would be very proud of this image! Great action here between the two species (the Redwing looks really funky with it's "pin-head"!). Beautiful BG and really nice, soft light. I agree with Jules about the branch exiting at the bottom. It would be dead easy to remove.

[Mike Wilhelm]

In my opinion, this is a fine capture. When I first looked at the photo, I never noticed the branch at the bottom as I was immersed in the other factors of the shot. Only after reading other comments did I see their point. I still like it, branch or not. Wonderful work!

[nancy hazen]

Amazing image!

[Steve Uffman]

That is what I am talking about. Nature being nature. My favorite shots are like these where animals interact with others or their environment. Great shot and thanks for sharing