Red-breasted Sapsucker

Gallery: AvianPosted March 10, 201685 views3 comments

It's been awhile since I have been active here, as life keeps getting in the way. Trying out a new lens and this is one of my first shots with it. This species shows itself a very few times each year on my property in the northern Sierra foothills, but they have always been very secretive and difficult to photograph. They don't respond to my feeders, but just quietly show up in the trees and require a lot of serious looking to locate them. Though I don't consider this a great image, I was extremely pleased to at least get one in the viewfinder. D300, Sigma 150-600 S, F7.1, 1/400, ISO 1250, -0.3 ev. Comments and criticism are always highly valued.

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on March 11, 2016 at 12:40 PM

Good start to the new lens. I've been wondering about this class of zooms since they firast appeared so I hope you will continue to post examples.

Nice soft light and good natural colors. A bit more depth of field woild have helped but looks like you didn't have many other options. I'd be happy to get something on this species this nice.

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 11, 2016 at 5:50 PM

Excellent job on the exposure, Jim, and a great job finding an angle to get the whole bird in the clear. I do wish that branch over the head had a touch more clearance, but It doesn't look like you had many options. I like the comp and detail looks good. If you didn't crop this already, you could take a chunk of that tree and post it in the weekly challenge gallery today or tomorrow (it's "bark" this week).

devil

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

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on March 11, 2016 at 7:33 PM

Thanks for your comments Richard and Dennis. I agree with both of you. A little more depth of field, particularly for the bird's head (not quite as sharp as the body), would have helped. Dennis, that branch above the bird's head bugs me too. Sometimes I will take the time to clone out something like this, but this one just looked like too much work. That bird was not very cooperative and had me moving the tripod to different positions constantly. Yes, I feel good that at least I got the whole bird in the picture with no branches in front of it.
Not sure yet if I will keep this lens as it is much bigger and heavier than I am used to. Also, never used a lens with VR, OS, or whatever they call it, so that is also taking some practice in knowing where to set it and when. Unfortunately, I haven't had any great light yet to try it out in as the rain keeps on here in Northern California. I have a few more shots I will be posting soon. Overall, looks like a very well made and sharp lens.

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