One more high-key shot against the Arizona sky in February. The group we were birding with searched for days to add this Arizona specialty to our list, checking out every clump of Mistletoe we passed along the road. We finally gave up and declared it to be a species we missed. Then on our final afternoon before we had to catch the plane, my wife and I spotted this one in the gardens of the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. Mid-day against bright sky is not the best condition to photograph a black bird, but this is my record shot of this lifer.
A very fine record shot it is ( must be hard to get if it is a lifer for you) and yes very difficult to get right with all the conditions against you. It looks like it is a big crop and you have pushed as much detail as possible. For my eye it is a bit messy with all the twigs but knowing how mistletoe grows this is what you get. I may have brought the edges in so the long branch was just going off shot but that depends how much detail you could retain. Good one for the theme though.
Quite a nice shot, especially considering the bright sky. Exposure of blacks is well controlled. Well focused considering the focal length! I like the comp as is.
Congrats on this lifer.
It is always fun to hear stories about the circumstances of a special find!
I like the IQ and the tangled mistletoe.The raised crest is very appealing.
Colors look good in the blacks considering this is a high key image.