Dickcissel

[Dan Behm]

I photographed this Male Dickcissel at a Local Nature preserve this past spring, This was one of 2 Males that were bidding on the attention of 4-5 females in the area. These birds were quite the buzz amongst the birding community at they don't typically come this far East. I made 2 trips here before finally connecting on this fairly cooperative male. What drew me to this image was the surrounding habitat.

Comments and critique always welcome!

1D4|600F/4|1.4x| Iso200|F/8| 1/320th| Manual| Lorain County,Ohio



Thanks for looking! Dan

[gail bisson]

very nice image.Good techs and
IQ. I really like the environmental feel. I would have liked to see all the plant on the right but that is a minor nit.I also like the multi-colored and multi stemmed perch. very nice,
Gail

[Peter Dexter]

Great portrait of this bird of the fields. Love seeing how he perches on the grass stems. The focus is a little soft for my tastes.

[James Fuller]

Great job, love the inclusion of the habitat and the way he is perched on the multiple grass stems (adds a lot of character to the image). Where I am, these birds always perch so high, so it is rare to get a shot of them without the sky as the background.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful image, Dan. Love the feet, the colors, the habitat. Maybe worth trying one more round of sharpening as Peter points out. But all around yet another stunner from you!

[Dan Behm]

Appreciate the comments, I think the image quality suffers due to the significant crop factor, I was going off Melissa's previous post of her Mallard and thought I would see how this one was perceived. It's one of those shots that I would like to have been closer for,I have others that are Very crisp but wanted to see the consensus here. appreciate the honesty...

Gail as far as the crop, I tried it with including that but things get busy in the surrounding habitat that seems to throw off the balance of the image overall.

Dan

[Gary Esman]

Appreciate the comments, I think the image quality suffers due to the significant crop factor, I was going off Melissa's previous post of her Mallard and thought I would see how this one was perceived. It's one of those shots that I would like to have been closer for,I have others that are Very crisp but wanted to see the consensus here. appreciate the honesty...

Gail as far as the crop, I tried it with including that but things get busy in the surrounding habitat that seems to throw off the balance of the image overall.

Dan

Hey Dan, beautiful shot. I think the image quality is there, at least for the web.

Gary.

[Ofer Levy]

Beautiful image! The habitat puts it over the top. IQ looks fine to me but maybe a tiny bit more sharpening.

[Tom Rambaut]

Love the soft OOF BG plants. Great environment shot and pose plus eye contact of bird make this a very good image. The fact that the birds head is in open space with no strong BG plants behind it makes a big difference.

[Jim Buescher]

One of the best Dickcissel images I've seen here. Nice soft light and I agree with Tom about the clean BG behind the bird's head, really makes it stand out. Wish I got one this good when I was there!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, super pose from the litle guy, and I like how his feet have grabbed the grass stalks together. Good array of colours on him, and I like what Gary did with the extra sharpening.

[Sachin Saraf]

Dan this is a superb image...love the way this one is holding multiple grass stems to perch...BG is really pleasing and so are the colors...a bit more sharpening would further add character to this stunning image..

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Dan! I like the setting, pose and perch. I would consider removing the stalks of the perch that continue out of the frame.

[Josh Clark]

This makes me thing springtime Dan. These guys were fun to shoot up there. You did a great job representing the species with this shot. I like the included habitat in the BG as well. Such a special area and a fun place to shoot.