What a Feast!

Gallery: AvianPosted December 9, 2012406 views10 comments

I've not been out much in the past several weeks, but when I was, I have tried to get a Pine Grosbeak feeding crabapple trees. Here is male Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) feeding on crabapples in a local park. They moved in together with the Waxwings. There was a flurry of activity and then they were gone. And it was cold: -21 Celsius, and with the windchill more like -28 C.

I wish I would have a had a bit more time (and warmer conditions) to get a shot where the head is more in the clear, but this is the best shot I got. It's a landscape capture cropped to vertical and relaxed a bit on the side. I have applied positive highlight vignetting (brighter) to reduce a bit on the "clutter". If any vignetting, I might sometimes apply slight negative highlight (darker), but I did not like that with this image and the wintery scene.

Any comments are much appreciated. Thanks for looking. Roger.

Canon 7D, Sigma 150-500 at 500 mm, f/10, ISO 640, 1/1000 sec, HH, PP in LR4.

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on December 9, 2012 at 4:40 PM

Oops, too saturated. I was working off the monitor to the right.

Added: actually, that's not it. I think this might be profile issue.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on December 9, 2012 at 4:42 PM

Amazing action Roger.
May

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

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on December 9, 2012 at 6:09 PM

Very interesting composition - the grosbeak is certainly intertwined in the berries. I agree something is wrong with the reds on the bird. I'll try to remember the lightening vignette (I sometimes go negative to keep from bleeding off the edges).

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

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on December 9, 2012 at 7:31 PM

Thanks all. I think the problem with the color is due to color space. I noticed the problem right away when viewing the upload in Internet Explorer. Above is a composite screen capture (Snagit) that shows the same file. On the left: displayed in IE after upload. On the right: same local file displayed in an Image viewer. The image on the right is similar (or identical) that what I saw in LR on the same monitor. Firefox also display the uploaded image more like the one on the right. Interestingly, the screen capture program seems to keep the original colors better. I remember reading about IE and profiles and I think I have flagged a thread on that. The file was saved from LR4 using sRGB. I better do some reading and experimenting. I had noticed color differences with IE before, but it was never as gaudy as this. Sorry for the offensive colors.

More and more confusing. I'm now looking at the image with the iPad. The original looks fine. The one on the left in the composite also look fine. The one on the right in the composite looks flat.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on December 9, 2012 at 7:45 PM

A killer pose and image.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on December 9, 2012 at 7:48 PM

Colors look fine on the original image, both are nice. Excellent detail, love the bit of snow on the berries.

Ray

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

Comment posted by John Tobias on December 9, 2012 at 8:12 PM

Looks fine to me also! Like the behavior you caught with this image. Sharpness is good and the BG works well IMHO. Thanks for sharing.

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

Comment posted by Ken Archer on December 9, 2012 at 10:06 PM

A sweet feeding behavior photo Roger. Great upside down pose. I really the snow covered berries too.

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on December 10, 2012 at 3:54 PM

Wonderful pose and setting this with excellent detail in the larger image, way to go.

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

Comment posted by Mark Schiebelbein on December 10, 2012 at 9:19 PM

Terrific feeding behaviour well captured Roger. Vignetting is not something I have ever tried or used but after seeing this I will keep it in mind as something that could be useful.

Registered on November 8, 2008, 55 Posts, 393 Comments