Cleared for Landing

[Dennis Bishop]

Well, I've finally done it. Posted a bird on birdphotographers.net. A couple months ago, I turned our dining room into a temporary photo blind. There's a bird feeder 20 feet, or so, beyond the window. For this shot -- and about a billion unsuccessful ones -- I manually focused on the feeder, swung the camera a bit to the side, and shot in continuous high speed mode.

ISO 16000 (yes, that many zeroes), f/8, 1/1000, zoom lens at 280mm (full frame sensor)

Post Processing

• noise reduction in Adobe Camera Raw
• cropping -- a lot This image represents about 15% of the photographed area.
• Topaz Simplify -- preset based on BuzSim
• Posterize adjustment layer
• Fractalius -- Soft Light blend mode
• Nik Color Efex Pro -- Tonal Contrast and Darken/Lighten Center
• Gradient Map adjustment layer -- purple to green gradient, Soft Light blend mode
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize Line Art at reduced opacity

[Keith Carver]

Love your treatment of this, Dennis. You started with a good strong shot then made it painterly and better. Bird colors and BG are especially nice, and the claws-out capture is terrific.

[Mark Fuge]

Nice image and application, Dennis.

Somedays we have to post birds, though it seems rare on this board!

Like the effect of this.

[denise ippolito]

Dennis, Great pose and filtering! I like the way you cropped this. I might evict the small stick on the upper left side if it were mine. Very nice and congrats on your first bird posting! Hope there are more to come...

[Judy Howle]

Outstanding capture and processing Dennis!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Well, Dennis, I hope we see more of your bird images - I love this one. I agree with Denise about removing the small stick on the left side. Great job

[Paul Lagasi]

Denis I try to post birds whenever I can, after all it is BPN. I like this...grackles are tough birds to get right, the head feathers can appear black, purple, green or blue in different light.

You've stopped the action, nice composition, I agree with stick removal....Well Done

[Dennis Bishop]

I appreciate everyone's comments. Thanks, especially, to Denise and the others who agreed with her about the stick removal. I was reluctant to remove it because it seemed like it was leading the eye toward the subject, but I tried it. Lo and behold, you were all right. Thank you. Even though it was pointing in the right direction, I suppose it was an interruption.