Female Redwing: The females were busy building nests while the males were flitting about showing off their shoulders. Nikon D800E with 300mm f2.8 and TC-E3III. ISO 320, f5.6(wide open)...

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

The females were busy building nests while the males were flitting about showing off their shoulders. Nikon D800E with 300mm f2.8 and TC-E3III. ISO 320, f5.6(wide open) 1/800.

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Jakebrake Loc: Broomfield, Colorado

Nice shot! :thumbup:

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

mcveed wrote:

The females were busy building nests while the males were flitting about showing off their shoulders. Nikon D800E with 300mm f2.8 and TC-E3III. ISO 320, f5.6(wide open) 1/800.

XXXXXX

Hi, Don,
Super nidation behavior portrait! Well exposed and focused with goos pose on the cattail floss nest. Good use of DOF. Her gaze is slightly to our left, so, togive her noticeably morecspace to gaze into, I'd probablybcrop a bit from the right.

impact:4
tech: 4
comp:3
11/15

Nice job!
Dave in SD

waltchilds Loc: Central Florida

Uuglypher wrote:

XXXXXX

Hi, Don,
Super nidation behavior portrait! Well exposed and focused with goos pose on the cattail floss nest. Good use of DOF. Her gaze is slightly to our left, so, togive her noticeably morecspace to gaze into, I'd probablybcrop a bit from the right.

impact:4
tech: 4
comp:3
11/15

Nice job!
Dave in SD

Dave, I agree that this is a very nice photo, but it seems a little underexposed so I was wondering about your tech score of a 4. Am I missing something here.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

waltchilds wrote:

... it seems a little underexposed so I was wondering about your tech score of a 4. Am I missing something here.

You are missing the fact that making it brighter would make it necessary to lower the contrast to hold any detail in the fluffy stuff under the bird, unless you boosted the mid-tones without disturbing the highlights. It could not have been exposed any better.

Technically it is a fine image sharply focused, especially when you consider the effective focal length (600mm) and the wide aperture. There is some dust on the sensor that could be easily spotted out.

Impact depends a lot on whether you like birds and bird pictures and whether it appeals to your personal interests. I am ambivalent about them so, to me, the impact is not as high as it is for Dave.

The composition is what it is. With wildlife pictures, what you often see is the subject centered in the image (this one is a little too far to the left) with most of the environment out of focus. This makes it more of a documentary shot than an art statement.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

Uuglypher wrote:

XXXXXX

Hi, Don,
Super nidation behavior portrait! Well exposed and focused with goos pose on the cattail floss nest. Good use of DOF. Her gaze is slightly to our left, so, togive her noticeably morecspace to gaze into, I'd probablybcrop a bit from the right.

impact:4
tech: 4
comp:3
11/15

Nice job!
Dave in SD

Thanks Dave. Composition/cropping is such a subjective thing! Her head is right at the junction of the vertical and horizontal "rule of thirds" lines but you have a point.
Don

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

selmslie wrote:

You are missing the fact that making it brighter w... (show quote)

Could you point out the dust spots you see on the sensor? I just cleaned the sensor and there were a very few dust particles on it but only one of them was in the cropped portion submitted and I'm pretty sure that one was in the dark part of the bird's body. I can't see any dust spots on this picture. Don

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

mcveed wrote:

Could you point out the dust spots you see on the sensor? I just cleaned the sensor and there were a very few dust particles on it but only one of them was in the cropped portion submitted and I'm pretty sure that one was in the dark part of the bird's body. I can't see any dust spots on this picture. Don

One to the right of the stick and another to the right of the tail. But they are light in color so they could easily be pollen floating near the bird.

Maybe I am just used to seeing light dust spots on negative scans. If they were dust on your sensor they would have been dark.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

selmslie wrote:

One to the right of the stick and another to the right of the tail. But they are light in color so they could easily be pollen floating near the bird.

Maybe I am just used to seeing light dust spots on negative scans. If they were dust on your sensor they would have been dark.

Yes, those are bits of seeds and fluff from the cattail that the bird is perched on. She kicked up a bit of a flurry when she landed and I waited until most of it had blown away. Sensor dirt always shows up as dark out of focus circular smudges.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

My goal this year is to get a shot as good as this one of a female redwing blackbird. Your focus is excellent and while a slightly different crop maybe an improvement there isn't much else I would change. This image does a nice job of showing off her interesting markings.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

mcveed wrote:

Yes, those are bits of seeds and fluff from the cattail that the bird is perched on. She kicked up a bit of a flurry when she landed and I waited until most of it had blown away. Sensor dirt always shows up as dark out of focus circular smudges.

Then you don't have a problem and your sensor is clean.

My knee-jerk reaction would have been to remove the spots from the image even they could be easil explainedy. I don't worry about the sensor unless the problem recurs on subsequent frames.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

mcveed wrote:

Thanks Dave. Composition/cropping is such a subjective thing! Her head is right at the junction of the vertical and horizontal "rule of thirds" lines but you have a point.
Don

yeah...but that big bare area to the right...and behind her direction of view...?
but....I gotta admit, I've literally hundreds of shots of female red-wings amongst the reeds and rushes and none compare with this one. Crop it as you damned please...it's a winner!

Wish I could sign MY name on it!

Dave

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

Uuglypher wrote:

yeah...but that big bare area to the right...and behind her direction of view...?
but....I gotta admit, I've literally hundreds of shots of female red-wings amongst the reeds and rushes and none compare with this one. Crop it as you damned please...it's a winner!

Wish I could sign MY name on it!

Dave

Careful! You'll give me a swollen head.
Don