Western Tanager

Gallery: AvianPosted May 22, 2011116 views10 comments

Before transitioning to Nature Photography nearly 10 years ago, I was a wild bird carver for over 30 years. As a carver this was my favorite non waterfowl bird with the males brilliant breeding colors. I shot this one at the local Nat'l. Wildlife Refuge this past week. I even watched one do an inflight 360 degree flip and land with a fly in his beak.

Larger image available, "Thank you" for stopping!

canon 40D (7D in hospital)
canon 600mm f4.L IS USM + 1.4 TC
F/8.0 1/500 ISO 250

A very tight image, 1 inch added to both top and bottom in CS4

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on May 22, 2011 at 4:21 PM

A very colorful comp Craig. A good job on the canvas additions. I can only find one area with a repeated pattern. One of the leaves right above the birds head. I very pleasing image overall.

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

Comment posted by Angela McCain on May 22, 2011 at 4:41 PM

Amazing, beautiful bird. Excellent capture with great sharpness and color. I can't believe that you got this close. Certainly on my "to do" list.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on May 22, 2011 at 7:09 PM

Craig, I like the vertical perch to go with the birds body position and the colors are wonderful. Nice head turn. Still plenty tight but your added canvas had to make a huge improvement and you've done a good job of it. I still don't have anything anywhere near to decent on this species.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on May 22, 2011 at 7:48 PM

Absolutely wonderful image of an elusive bird. All the great things said already are so true. The near verticle perch gives a great shot so much more speciality.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on May 22, 2011 at 10:04 PM

Sweet! What a beautiful bird...well captured. Such vibrant colors, well represented here.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Graham Brown on May 23, 2011 at 6:05 AM

A beautiful looking bird. I like the composition and crop, the background looks very natural. Bird detail is excellent. A beautiful image. Graham

Registered on November 20, 2007, 275 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Huff on May 23, 2011 at 1:01 PM

Wow what a colorful bird. Great job Craig, really nice exposure,detail and color.

Ron Huff

Registered on August 31, 2010, 69 Posts, 440 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on May 24, 2011 at 6:15 PM

I have only got a brief glimpse of these, nice job in getting this with a background that really shows off the bird's color, well done.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on May 24, 2011 at 10:10 PM

Excellent image, Craig. Really like all the elements in it. The green background makes the tanager stand out. Great head turn and the perch goes very well with your comp.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on May 26, 2011 at 6:32 PM

Very nice Craig. Nice exposure on the bright colors.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments