Cedar Waxwing

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks;

Waxwings in flocks have been visiting us for a couple of weeks and always spread out on the very high branches of our Arizona Ash. With only a 400 mm lens it's tough to pick out a good shot. However, this one was peeking through the branches, and because good pickings are slim I thought I could at least show you another species from my garden. Did a lot of cutting with the brush tool the same colour as the BG Please excuse any inferior PP work with CS5 after LR3

Comments always welcome & appreciated.

Gus

Olympus E-3, Zuiko ED 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 SWD, @ 400 mm equiv. Gitzo GM3550 MonoPod

Received a Zuiko TC 20, 2.0 this afternoon, but dropping my aperture to F/7.0 I think I'll take another tack

AP: F/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 200, -0.00eV, CWA, sRGB, AWB

[Gus Hallgren]

This was the original crop

[Maureen Allen]

EEEK Gus! That's a lovely bird and you did a fantastic job of getting rid of the clutter, but that's an awful lot of branches to have to deal with. Is there a spot in your yard you can set up so that you have a clearer view of the birds?

I set up several branches supported in old Christmas tree stands I found at a thrift shop. I put the food and birdbath below them. The branches are eye level to where I hide in the shed and wait. If I'm patient enough (and my monster dog doesn't frighten them away), even the very shy birds eventually decide it's safe enough to grab a bite to eat.

BTW, there's nothing inferior about your pp work. I'm amazed at what you do!

[nancy hazen]

I totally agree with Maureen - excellent PP. These are on the top of my list to catch. You did a great job!
If you put of som of those branches that Maureen suggested, they might come a bit closer.

Nancy

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Ladies;

Thank you very much for looking at my post.

Maureen, All your ideas are gream however, my garden is set up with seed, suet, peanut butter on pine cones, oranges, pompagrates, hummingbird feeders, also little cups embedded in dried Cholla I fill with bird seed that can't be seen when birds feed from them. Also, Grape Jelly when Orioles are around. Have hanging feeder with Thistle seed that attracts Goldfinchs like crazy as well as House finches. I have lots of lower branches, but the Cedar Waxwings always flock in the topmost branches of my Arizona Ash and never come down to feed even with us 100 feet away, and never fly away with us sitting directly below. They come in flocks, as many as 50 at a time, sit up high in the sun for up to 10 or 20 minutes. Fly away & come back at odd times for about 4 weeks every year in the latter part of December through January.

Right now I have only a 400 mm as my longest lens, tried a $500 TC 20 on it, a real waste of money so I ordered a 600 mm that would probably help. A blind on our flat roof would be great, but we have solar pipes on it for heating the pool across the street & the association would frown on me going up there.

It sure nice watching them puffed out for warmth & sun bathing in our brilliant sun.

Warm hugs

Gus

BTW: At 87 I'm not too limber climbing ladders.

[Julie Kenward]

BTW: At 87 I'm not too limber climbing ladders.

Gus, that made me chuckle!

You did a LOT of pp work on this one but there are some marks left behind (to the left of the bird's feet and below the bird). One thing you can do with a BG this plain at the end of the process is to select just the BG, inverse the selection (so now only the bird and branch are selected) and then use the eye dropper tool to grab a 3x3 sample of the color. Switch to a large soft brush and paint over the entire BG at 30% to even out and remove all those little left behind marks.

Cedar waxwings are one of my alltime favorite birds. We have them in the Midwest but they only frequent certain trees at certain times so I don't get to see them that often. They always make my day when I do, though!

[Maureen Allen]

Whoa, you're going to be unstoppable with that 600mm! I don't climb ladders either

[Gus Hallgren]

Hin Folks;

Thanks for looking.

Jules;

I recloned the perch, and the errant blemishes in CS5 as the perch was the worst culprit IMHO.

Gus

[Julie Kenward]

Looks really nice, Gus!