I have wanted a good Brown Creeper for years. Always chasing them and getting a blurrry back half of a bird going up the tree. When I first saw this bird I was having lunch and just watched knowing it would be gone soon. But he kept coming back to the same tree so I investigated and saw that he was building a nest. I spent the next few days watching, waiting and photographing when the light was as good as it would get - dark or harsh were my options.
Rocky Point, Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon
D3S, 500mm +1.4 converter
ISO 1600, F5.6, 1/400 sec, manual exposure
Cropped from horizontal to vertical
Great action pose and head turn. I see quite a bit of noise and would do another run of NR on the BG. I like the little bits of color in the bark. I wish the tail feathers were in sharp focus but head is good and that's what counts,
Gail
What a great opportunity you had here, lucky you! I love the pose and the nesting material in the bill. Yes, noise should be dealt with, and comp-wise I love to see more canvas above.
I've stumbled across two creeper nests in the recent past...one was destroyed by a wind strom the very evening I discovered it, and the other was in an area that became flooded and inaccessible the day after I found it...
Very nice shot Laurie, I like the slight turn he gave you with his prize.. Wow what a log for a little bird to be carrying around Agree with Gail and Danny above.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I have never done a noise reduction before but have tried it now for the first time. I had to start over so the crop is a little different. Also, I did not sharpen the original post after reducing it to web size so I have added that change.
These little guys are so fast and are almost always in the shade.
I like the pose, but I would have liked to see some more DOF. Did you try using flash to improve the lighting conditions?
I agree with adding more canvas on the top.
Tough little guys to capture - as Luis says, fast and in the shade - and you did very nicely indeed. Repost is an improvement. Another stop would have helped, but I can see that you were fighting the dim light.
Such a great capture. I too have been trying to get a good shot of one these little guys for a couple of years. Nothing I have achieved is even close to how great this capture is. I agree with the others that another stop would have pushed it over the edge. The repost is a great improvement from the OP.