Black-Capped Chickadee

Gallery: AvianPosted February 9, 2016125 views4 comments

In search of bird in winter images for the weekly challenge, I went back to our big winter storm of 2008. In the process, I came across some chickadee images that I don't believe I ever processed. While the snow in this image is very faint in the bg, I really loved the look of the oof Douglas Fir branches and the nice pose of the bird.

40D, 500 mm f/4 ISL + 1.4TC, Jobu gimbal on Gitzo legs, f/6.3, 1/50, iso 500, aperture priority, pattern metering. Processed in LR5 & CS6. Cropped to 7.7 MP before resizing (the 40D was around 10MP). Taken at 11:07 AM on December 14, 2008 at the beginning of the winter snows that year.

Comments and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks,

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on February 10, 2016 at 12:52 PM

Hello Dennis... Nice capture here... Well done

Bill

Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on February 10, 2016 at 1:51 PM

Nice clean composition and pose, Dennis. I think the only thing that could make this better would be to have one of the lighter parts of the background behind the bird's black cap. Do you have an assistant that could sneak behind the birds to push branches around? ;^)

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on February 10, 2016 at 3:48 PM

Good shot of one of my favorite birds. In the detail view, the head looks a little bit soft; might be worth some additional selective sharpening.

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

Comment posted by David Bogener on February 10, 2016 at 6:26 PM

Really nice image. Looks like a tough exposure, but nice detail in the blacks and whites. This species range barely extends into Del Norte and Humboldt Counties in California. I get to shoot them rarely and have nothing in my files anywhere near this nice.

Registered on October 30, 2013, 417 Posts, 1255 Comments