Pygmy Nuthatch

Gallery: AvianPosted November 8, 201573 views8 comments

Returning from a camping trip a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I visited a trailer "dump station" just north of Mount Lassen. There were scads of these birds hanging out there, and were particularly attracted to the leaks in the fresh water pumps just adjacent. I hadn't seen this species in many years, so grabbed the camera and (forgetting the tripod) went crazy snapping pictures. Very few of them were usable due to the low light and resulting blur. This one, I thought, was salvagable. The lighting was very difficult and post processing adjustments were required. D800e, 300f4, 1.4tc, 1/200, f5.6, ISO 1000. Comments are very much appreciated.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on November 9, 2015 at 11:13 AM

Good job in the difficult lighting, Jim. The sun streaks are actually kind of cool. I love the oof pine needles in the bg-wish we had some long leaf pines in this area-they really look cool this way. I do wonder how the sun streaks would look if you warmed the image up a bit?

devil

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

Comment posted by Basil Greber on November 9, 2015 at 11:15 AM

Sweet. I particularly like how the background is smooth, but still clearly reveals something about the bird's habitat.

Registered on November 8, 2005, 219 Posts, 1340 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on November 9, 2015 at 11:45 AM

I like this as posted. But I'm confused by the streaking on the crown - is this plumage or light and shadow? I'm going to have to dig out all my field guides if you say this is plumage!

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

Comment posted by Jerry Marella on November 9, 2015 at 3:11 PM

NIce shot of this bird, Jim. I like the crop and the head turn. There seems to be a blue cast throughout. Probably because of the low cool light.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 142 Posts, 862 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on November 9, 2015 at 5:59 PM

Thanks for the comments folks. Richard, those are light streaks on the crown. Had to tone them down considerably. You can put the field guides away sad

. Dennis and Jerry, I will try warming this up a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.

Registered on May 5, 2011, 161 Posts, 908 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on November 9, 2015 at 6:00 PM

Nice image despite the light conditions. I think you managed it pretty well.
Cute bird.

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on November 10, 2015 at 9:18 PM

Looks like you handled the tough lighting well in PP Jim. Good head turn and comp. Very nice find and I also like this as posted.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on November 10, 2015 at 11:20 PM

I like the pose in this image. Also the BG, there does seem to be a cool cast to the image. Good work under less than ideal conditions. Thanks for sharing.

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