Daddy and His Boy

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I am so pleased to have had this opportunity not only to see this behavior but shoot it as well with great company of my friend Marina. I discovered this downy woodpecker nest a week before while looking for a pileated nest with fledlings. The pileated were gone but while looking I heard the cries of these chicks and located the nest. I shot the next day with no success and still using my 40 D I was not able to get the ss I wanted so I wasn't too sure I would get a good shot ever as the light just wasn't cooperating. Marina and I decided to go out this day with hopes that the chicks hadn't fledged. They were still there and again the light was not good. This time I took a ladder for better height and got closer to the nest. I decided to push the camera to the limit at ISO 800 to get a decent ss. I am pretty happy with this shot. We went back today with great light and the chicks were gone, but not exactly. Minutes later we heard them only to find them in nearby trees with mom and dad teaching them the ropes. It was pretty awesome to see it and share the moment with a friend.
Canon 40D 300 mm2.8 L IS w 2X
ISO 800 f9 @1/200
Noise reduction and sharpening applied tweaking done with Nik software. Cropped to vertical

[dankearl]

Cherl, absolute first rate behavioral image, nice light, BG and a great tree trunk.
A bit more sharpness on the birds would put this over the top.
Congratulations on your efforts to get this, nice work!

[Austin Thomas]

Great work. The image has it all. The full beak, the young on view, nice diffused background, catchlights, the list goes on....

Maybe just a touch tight at the bottom. If you have more canvas I would add some back in that area.

Cheers

Austin

[Fernando Cerra]

It looks a little too bright in my monitor and a little soft, but I like it a lot because of the interaction.

Regards
Fernando C.

[Bill Dix]

Love the interaction, and eye contact between parent and chick. I might take just a bit off the left side. Seems to lack critical sharpness; I suppose if it was hand-held on a ladder at 1/200 that might explain it. Nice job capturing the fleeting moment.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Cheryl, congrats on getting what you set out to do. I like the comp as is, and just love how youngster is peeking out the nest. Good to parent against the clean BG, and with beak full of food. If anything, I would tone down the left part of the tree.

[Karl Egressy]

Great to see Daddy with a lot of food and the little one sticking his head out, Cheryl.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose and interaction. I agree the image is a bit soft however. I hope you can figure out this AF/ sharpness issue real quick! good luck with CPS

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Thank you