I'm over here!!!

Gallery: AvianPosted March 18, 2010162 views17 comments

I recently purchased the Molar bean bag from Vertex Photographic and finally had a chance to try it out. I found this Red-winged blackbird singing out in a field at a local nature preserve. I had an unobstructed view from the truck with a decent background so I decided to stop. I ended up cropping this photo a little more than I would have liked but driving my truck into the field to get closer would have gotten me into some trouble.

Nikon D300 w/500mm f/4
1/320sec. f/4.0 ISO 400
Molar Bean bag, GMC Rolling photo blind.

Cloned out a small OOF piece of grass in the LRHC.
Sharpened for web using TK's less halos action.

Thanks for looking.

Comments

17 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on March 18, 2010 at 10:27 PM

Really nice graduated BG with a unique perch and the typical screaming pose. Blacks are a touch dark but colors look good

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by István Molnár on March 18, 2010 at 10:28 PM

Good!!!!
István

Registered on January 7, 2010, 114 Posts, 704 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 18, 2010 at 10:36 PM

I really like your comp, the lighting, perch, bg well everything, sweet shot Joel

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on March 18, 2010 at 11:41 PM

Very nice, Joel. Not only a classic male singing pose, but an interesting perch and nice background, too.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 18, 2010 at 11:53 PM

Sweet, Joel. Superb job on the exposure and a great singing pose and perch.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Mauro Pasquero on March 19, 2010 at 2:04 AM

Great capture, Joel.

Mauro

Registered on January 21, 2010, 650 Posts, 2500 Comments

Comment posted by Sandra Hendrikse on March 19, 2010 at 5:18 AM

Beautiful image. Lovely pose and a very nice background.

Registered on January 23, 2008, 48 Posts, 769 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 19, 2010 at 6:59 AM

Joel, the larger image shows some detail in all the blacks, so this exposure works for me given the reds and oranges look accurate to me. The singing pose, nice perch, and great BG bring this all together.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 19, 2010 at 7:09 AM

Great image quality Joel. Love the perch and some nice detail in the larger version. Any chance of getting a little more in some of those dark areas?

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Joe Paratore on March 19, 2010 at 7:45 AM

Sweet shot .... Joel

Registered on January 31, 2007, 40 Posts, 160 Comments

Comment posted by Darren Colello on March 19, 2010 at 2:27 PM

WOW. This is gorgeous. Great bg, bird, perch and pose.

Registered on July 27, 2009, 175 Posts, 1100 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Domm on March 19, 2010 at 2:50 PM

Very nice Joel. I like everything about it including the fact that they are finally back (as of March 8 at our house in mid Michigan).
Cheers
Robert Domm
Rives junction, Michigan

Registered on July 2, 2009, 17 Posts, 81 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on March 19, 2010 at 5:05 PM

Joel:
The color combination of bird, perch and BG is really striking. Exposure looks good. There is a thin sharpening halo noticeable along the top of the neck and a few other regions of the bird/BG interface. Sometimes that happens when reducing it for the web. The singing pose and alert posture is very nice too.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on March 19, 2010 at 9:24 PM

Perfect Joel.

You got the calling pose and the red in the wing as well as great exposure on the blacks

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Derrick Lipinski on March 19, 2010 at 10:07 PM

Wonderful in all respects, Joel; nicely captured.

Registered on October 5, 2007, 58 Posts, 2039 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on March 20, 2010 at 12:19 PM

Beautiful shot, Joel. I really like the light, the singing pose and the great background.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on March 21, 2010 at 3:34 PM

Joel,

You have a great singing pose, a lovely perch and a very nce background.

As david mentioned I see a thin halo around the bird, that might be from sharpening, carefully masking then applying sharpening to just the bird & perch would eliminate the halo. The darks do seem to have some detail in the darkest areas of the larger image. Using + 0.3 EV comp would have shown more details in the blacks. The reds & yellow look very natural to my eye given the light.

I love to hear this species sing.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments