Photographed in our garden in Green Valley, AZ this morning under clear blue skies against the background
of White Adobe residence using a mirrorless camera. A Olympus EPL1, one of the least expensive models out
at the moment. As they only come with an LCD, I added a VF-2 Electric Viewfinder. As this was new to me,
I used Auto, and I was very pleased with it.
Nice capture of the bird. Good color, pose, focus.
I would rather a much tighter crop on the bird to eliminate so much of the stark white BG. I would have done a portrait crop to place the birds eye at the upper left thirds intersection.
I really like this one, well done. This is a species I rarely see and a beautiful bird. On balance this is a strong picture Gus! I might reduce the perch a bit. This is nice for an auto setting with a mirrorless camera. This class of smaller cameras have come far in the past few years. Of course, they always look better in the hands of a good photographer like you. I am impressed with the image quality, I assume the viewfinder helps with focus. This is a fixed lens correct.
Thanks for the kind words. Took your advice & put eye in top left. The only way I can see to reduce the perch is to rotate so tree vertical, but I like the bird attitude. Under usual conditions I quite often make the tree vertical to reduce it's size by cropping.
Jeff: This is an interchangeable lens camera, my next lens is a Lumix 100-300, eqiv 200-600 mm. Our garden has cactus and with a couple of feeders we get
a lot of birds with the Curve-billed Thrasher a 20 + year resident in a Cholla Cactus.
Gus
BTW: I'm not capable of photographing birds without a view finder.
Hi Gus, sweet capture and honestly I like the original crop better - maybe with just a little bit taken from the left. To my eye, it seems that this woodpecker is about to fly off to the left and needs some space there. Nothing at all wrong with the white background, it gives the image the look of an illustration. I would, however, select the bg and tree and use a curves adjustment to bring down the level just a bit. As for the crop, not every image fits into the so-called "rule" of thirds, which is at best a suggestion and at worst makes images out of balance when trying to shoe-horn them into an artificial formula. The important thing is that the exposure on the bird is spot on and you captured a nice pose. Color rendition looks just right to me.
I have had several good p&s cameras over the years, but I would never buy one that didn't have a viewfinder. Personally, I can't see the LCD screens outdoors in bright sun, plus it just doesn't feel right to me to hold the camera away from my eye. The viewfinder addition was a great idea and kudos to Olympus for offering it, even though it costs half as much as the camera. Well worth it. Good job!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
I can't really agree with the others on the bg. To me, the stark white is punishing to the eye and washes out the perch. If it were me, I would color replace the bg with something more neutral. I am kind of amazed you were able to get that with a point and shoot, though. Nice work.
I think a slight color BG would look nice. BTW: This Olympus Pen is not a point & shoot. Has interchangable lens and is a small alternative to the SLR made smaller because it is mirrorless. ook at it here
Keep smiling
Gus
BTW; Betcha you're going to watch the super bowl
Gila Woodpecker with EPL1
