Eastern Kingbird

Gallery: AvianPosted June 16, 201185 views11 comments

Near Brazoria NWR. Freeport, Tx June 4, 2011

D3 ISO 400. 300/2.8 with 2x tc. f8 1/640. From car window. About 50% FF. Some extra branches on the left cloned out.

The perch is bright and I left it that way for 2 reasons: First, I thought it offset the bird's whites nicely, and second, the tree is dead and bleached after dying of salt water from the tidal surge of Hurricane Ike. A lot of trees in this part of the Upper Texas Coast met the same fate.

If you get a chance, check out my Quill and Dove ( and all the other images) in this week's weekly challenge.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Verdon on June 16, 2011 at 8:56 PM

very nice shot Angela, probably I would crop more from the right and the top side and add more to the bottom left and this way you would have end of the branch (probably...!?) anyway again GREAT WORK!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on June 17, 2011 at 1:26 AM

I agree with you that the bleached bark on the dead limb balances nicely the whites in the bird. Sweet frame, as well. The whites are just a bit hot on the upper chest/neck on my calibrated monitor; easily fixed.

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

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on June 17, 2011 at 4:30 AM

Beautiful capture of the Kingbird Angela, and I like the way the vertical branch is helping to frame the bird :^)

While I appreciate your reasons for wanting to leave the parts of the tree that light, I find the brightness competes for my attention, so if this were mine I would Burn them a little I think.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by John Robinson on June 17, 2011 at 11:01 AM

The branch does frame the bird well and I agree I would tone it down a tad. Good stuff.
JohnR

Registered on March 2, 2008, 535 Posts, 2453 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 17, 2011 at 3:51 PM

Hi Anglea,
Really nice eye contact and your exposure on the bird looks good to me in that bright sun. I would try to tone down the whites on the branch directly under the tail coverts as they look too bright.

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on June 17, 2011 at 4:43 PM

Excellent detail, Angela and the pose works very well with the perch.

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

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on June 17, 2011 at 9:48 PM

Like the pose and intensity of the shot, very nice.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on June 18, 2011 at 7:33 AM

Sharp details and I like the comp. Think the branch lightness/brightness is fine, thanx for the info about it too.
Looks similar to the Phoebe here in its body structure, same family of birds anyway..
Well done

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on June 18, 2011 at 3:41 PM

Nice detail and exposure.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Dottie Short on June 20, 2011 at 1:46 AM

I agree with your reasoning for leaving the white bark. I thing it's hard to crop with the bulk of the body points one direction and the head is turned another direction. Did you consider doing a vertical crop? That would remove most of the BG area on the left side. The perch closest to the bird's tail could be the left edge of the image, and a small slice could be removed from the right side of the image as well. Just an idea! As usual your images are impeccable, and you never cease to delight my eye. Dottie

Registered on April 12, 2010, 61 Posts, 375 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Binda on June 20, 2011 at 2:11 PM

I think the bird stands out well this way just like you said, well done Angela!

cheers, Dennis

Registered on September 8, 2007, 56 Posts, 326 Comments