Mr. Grumpy

[Dan Busby]

I came across this grumpy looking Northwestern Crow while hiking a spit of land reaching out into a bay on southern Vancouver Island. These guys are normally pretty skittish but I had the 500 with 1.4x mounted on the tripod and thrown over my shoulder so setup was fairly quick and I got off a few frames. The main challenge here was keeping the blacks black but showing the detail. The light "glow" behind the bird came from a bright opening in the darker tree line on the distant shore. All C&C welcome.
Canon 7D, 500mm f/4L +1.4x, ISO:400, f/5.6@1/250, EC:0.0, AP, AI Servo AF, evaluative metering, Gitzo 3530LS, leveling head, Jobu HDII gimbal

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. Really like the pose, exposure is spot on, excellent detail, and real nice background.
Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Fantastic portrait, Dan. Great title too! Looks like a grump. Marvelous job with the detail in those blacks. Love the BG. Great HA. Would maybe tone down/darken the perch just a tad.

[Alan Murphy]

Nice image dan. I feel a more vertical crop would be stronger.

[James Salywoda]

So beautiful excellent detail and bg really nicely captured Dan.