robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Another shot from my sunset series on 8/18 just after 7 PM.
I have a ton of females and immature birds with a few males coming to my feeders now. The flocks of males have thinned out since the ladies made their choices weeks ago. The different finches look so much alike when immature (to me-birders can probably tell them apart) that I am just assuming they are all house finches. Very few sparrows now, the finches seem to have won the territorial battle for now and a few Lesser Goldfinch females and young still coming.
I am using my blind set up so I get them in good light late in the afternoon (inside that blind is HOT in the middle of the day and I sleep too late to have it on the East side of the feeders to shoot in the morning before it gets hot)

80D, 100-400L mk II @ 400, 1/250 @ f/5.6, ISO 1000 just after 7PM about 20 minutes before sundown, hand held at 13'8" (I was saying 15' but decided to measure for the detail freaks. It is 13'8" from the opening in the blind to the perch this bird is on.) Center point focus, silent burst and AI Servo. On sitting birds I usually do a 3 or 4 shot burst if they are still and 6-10 or more frames if they are fidgeting.

PP in Lr for crop, vibrancy, saturation and clarity - then to NIK Viveza for a touch of structure.
I have found if I run the clarity out to where I like it the most then back off a little and use Viveza's "structure" just a bit I like the look more - I may be nuts, but it seems to work for my eyes.
Disclaimer I us PS to put in my ID, I pick a color from somewhere in the image and type in the "RobertJerl©xxxx". A bit slower than using LR export watermark but I can use a huge range of colors to go with each image.

(Download)

danniepolley

Very nice

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thank You

Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az

Nice shot! Even though finches are very common it is sometimes nice to look at the common things in life to put a different perspective on life. Bring us back to reality! Again nice shot!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Excellent work, Bob! Haven't seen your work for a while.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks very much. Last year I started doing a series on the beauty of brown feathers (patterns), expanded to just the beauty in feather patterns.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks a lot.
Between the heat (only one day below 90 the last month) and the smoke from the large fires around this area I have not been out taking many pictures. I could have worked on macro indoors but I am rearranging the whole family room where my cameras and computer are (it is one huge clutter mess right now) so I went to my favorite e-book sites and bought a bunch of books, including Vince Flynn's entire Mitch Rapp series (all 18) and am reading a lot. No, I am not sleeping in the lounge chair, I always prop the e-reader on my chest, close my eyes and snore while reading in front of the AC!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

You are going to enjoy the Rapp series. Sorry he died, but the successor author is doing a pretty good job.

Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az