Captain Scarlet

Gallery: AvianPosted September 25, 2011144 views12 comments

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Aperture Priority @ f/8 (1/320 sec), -1/3 EV, ISO 1600, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, Cropped to About 40% of Full Frame

During my two weeks in South Africa I was lucky enough to photograph four different species of Sunbirds, which as some of your already know are my favourite family of birds! Being that Sunbirds are primarily nectar drinkers, and flowering trees and plants are pretty scarce out in the bush, in order to get the shots I wanted I needed to spend a good number of hours walking around the various camps I stayed at to give me sufficient opportunities.

Lighting was a constant challenge: many times there simply wasn't enough ambient light (due to overcast skies) to give me a fast enough shutter speed to perfectly freeze these flighty little subjects, and when the light was bright enough I struggled with exposure compensation in an effort to prevent the reflections off iridescent feathers showing up as areas of completely blown out highlights. In other words, none of these shots came easy!

The first of these four species I posted up here upon my return was the (male) Marico Sunbird. The one you see here is the (male) Scarlet-Throated Sunbird.

Critique and comments always welcome.

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on September 25, 2011 at 8:32 AM

Hi Ashley, another fine bird portrait. This is a very colorful bird. I like your composition, but do wish the flower was not blocking the legs of the bird. Sounds like you had to work with some difficult lighting, but sucessfully. The larger image does seem abit noisy, but at 1600 ISO you could expect some noise. While it may seem all of the branches may be distracting to me they establish the habitat these birds are found in. Looking forward to seeing more, thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Frye on September 25, 2011 at 10:51 AM

This is such a gorgeous bird that I would think about a vertical shot to take out some of the vegetation and greatly limit any distraction so the eye goes right to that pretty little thing. Good job under some tuff conditions.

Registered on February 3, 2007, 387 Posts, 1136 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on September 25, 2011 at 12:49 PM

Lovely iridescence in this bird. Sounds like a tough find. Agree about trying out some different crops to minimize the foliage, but a very nice image.

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

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on September 25, 2011 at 12:56 PM

Ashley, beautiful colors and light.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on September 25, 2011 at 2:54 PM

A very tough exposure problem, Ashley. This looks pretty good. Did you try desaturating the reds a bit to see what it would look like? Beautiful bird and flowers.

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

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on September 25, 2011 at 3:29 PM

Love it Ashley keep them coming. I like the velvety red flower, I think you could consider a vertical crop to focus in more on the bird.

Ray

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

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on September 25, 2011 at 8:55 PM

Wow, this bird's out of this world..Ya think we could talk it into migrating through Texas?

Sharp details and gorgeous iridescent colors, very striking

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

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on September 26, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Thanks for your kind words and suggestions John, Scott, Angela, Barbara, Dennis, Ray, and Howard :^)

The background here is indeed a little unfortunate, but where I feel I can get away with it I prefer not to crop too tight on a subject that's so small, which I find sometime gives a better sense of proportion and allows me to choose a composition that's more pleasing to my eye.

That said, I guess the real reason why I chose to show you this one first - i.e. I do have one or two more I'm pleased with! - is that I very much like the next one I'll be posting up of this one's mate, drinking nectar from the same flower he's perched on here only seconds apart :^)

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

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on September 26, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Sorry Dennis, missed your question: Yep, I did in fact experiment with the saturation on the red, and this was the best I managed to get get it for detail and tone.

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

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on September 26, 2011 at 8:54 PM

Hi Ashley,
It's a gorgeous bird and it's nice and crisp. I agree with trying a vertical crop here but only if you have more room on the bottom as that part looks as if it would be attractive - otherwise you will be pushing it for pixels. If you had shot this a little more wide open - 5.6 or so the background branches wouldn't have been as much of a distraction and you could have lowered your iso. The trade off is that I'm not certain the plant he's on would be in focus as it is now.