From a setup. I had tightly wedged a shelled peanut in a groove on this log to attract some Blue Jays. At one point a female Hairy Woodpecker came over to inspect the food morsel. Some Blue Jays also approached and she extended her wing to hide her prized possession. She held this pose while trying to dislodge the peanut, which she eventually did. Nothing extraordinary photograhy-wise, but the behaviour was a neat one to observe.
This frame was the first of the series, and the only one with a good HA as she was busy looking away or fiddling with the peanut...caught me by surprise at first so the bottom of the wing was almost touching the bottom of the frame. I added canvas there with the help of a subsequent frame.
Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/6.3, ISO 400, no EC, natural light, handheld.
I think this is quite a striking pose, unusual for a perched woodpecker, with a good head angle and an interesting story too.
Sharp and well exposed.
I might try to tone down/burn in the flat yellow area of wood extending out of the frame. I find it pulls my eye out of the frame.
I think you might be able to even crop a bit from the right to reduce that effect, without crowding the bird. Possibly a tiny balancing crop from the left if you go that route.
Great looking woodpecker and pose. Like the story, and what a neat behavior to witness, Daniel. Would be cool if you were able to get that on video as well. Good suggestions from Randy.
Great capture,Daniel,depicting interesting behaviour.IMO opinion only very slight toning down of wood is required.Great PP work in adding bottom canvas.
Her pose reminds me of the cowling (? sp) that owls do. Very unusual pose for a woodpecker. Good strong diagonal line and nice BG. Good PP work as well.
Gail
Happy New Year to you and your family. A big thank you for your help and critiques over the past 6 months. Even when I posted some "dogs" you were helpful and graciously pointed out how to improve! I really appreciate your hard work and dedication to this forum.
Last edited by gail bisson; 12-31-2011 at 06:27 AM.
Behavior is great and the feather detail in this image is superb as is the light. The fresh break in her perch tho is not. Thanks to the direction of her gaze, I would crop from the right and then repair what is left of the break. Then the image would be killer.
I had a second to do a very quick and rough revision of the right end of the image. Since Grace had similar thoughts to mine, I thought it was worth the try.
You obviously can do a much more refined job on the raw file, but I think this shows the concept of what I was talking about
Protective Hairy Woodpecker.
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you were helpful and graciously pointed out how to improve! I really appreciate your hard work and dedication to this forum.
