California Quail

[Joe Ford]

Wish I could say I tracked this guy through miles of sage brush, swamp, and snow fields, but he was in a tree in my back yard today.

Canon 1DMKiii, Canon 400 f5.6, 1.4 TC, Hand held.

1/400, f8, ISO 800, Aperture priority, spot meter, 0 compensation, moderate light through overcast sky.

My calcualted DOF is about 2 cm, so, next time, maybe I should use a flash or a tripod to allow me to stop down a bit as the tail is quite soft.

Applied a bit of gaussian blur to the background in PS as there were many distracting branches. Increased the saturation and lightened the eye a bit.

Thank you for looking and comments.

Joe

[Arthur Morris]

You are correct sir, when shooting these over the shoulder images from behind extra d-o-f is called for. The shadow of a branch on the back is unfortunate. If you start feeding these guys, you can usually get them to sit on a nice perch that you have put in place with perfect light and a great BKGR. There is lots of great info on setting up your backyard in ABP II (plus 1,000s more great tips).

later and love, artie

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice find and BG. Adding to Artie's comments, it is a bit tight in the frame and the trunk is a bit overpowering. Keep them coming!

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice Joe, Love the colors on your subject, and the soft smoky background...:D