Red Wing Black Birds

pathfinder

I spent a few hours Sunday morning looking for birds. No egrets, no owls, no hawks, just a few small birds hanging around the marsh.

A grackle in the grass


A male Red Wing Blackbird on a grass strand. It is hard to capture eye detail in this bird. Suggestions Harry?


A female Blackbird collecting food for the wee ones


Another female RW BB


And a Blackbird BIF


All of these were shot with a 20D and a 300mm + a 2x extender. Some handheld, some from a tripod.

Lucky Hack

Great set, Man, that 1st one is absolutely outstanding! It's eye is piercing and the exposure is perfect!

hoping this message finds you well -Ian

SusanB

Awesome job! I'm trying to imagine how you got such nice perspectives so low to the ground, from so far away- musta been quite the challenge. Super images for action capture, color and documentation of birds that I never observe myself.


Thanks,

Susan

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Lucky Hack wrote:

Great set, Man, that 1st one is absolutely outstanding! It's eye is piercing and the exposure is perfect!

hoping this message finds you well -Ian

I liked the grackle hidden in the grass too. Just a low angle shot and a shallow DOF. Thank you for looking and commenting.:):

pathfinder

SusanB wrote:

Awesome job! I'm trying to imagine how you got such nice perspectives so low to the ground, from so far away- musta been quite the challenge. Super images for action capture, color and documentation of birds that I never observe myself.


Thanks,

Susan

Most of the Blackbirds were just about eye level in height, so they were not really up in the air from a shooting perspective. The BBs were all in a marshy area full of the grass in the pictures and a few dead tree limbs.

I enjoy watching the BBs flit from grass strand to grass strand as they blow in the wind. I liked the fourth picture of the female singing the best, I think.Thank yoiu for commenting, Susan.:):

bfjr

Nice set
I like the momma with worm :food shot
and momma screaming, female screaming that's pretty normal :lol4

Harryb

Hey PF,

Everyone is a winner Outstanding

MuskyDude

All these are just great, PF. Very well done. That second female RRBB would find a place on my wall.


AJ

tmlphoto

Nice job Path. I like the 4th one the best. Those small birds are very tough to shoot. Natural light only, or were you using fill flash?

Andy

super work, path!

eye detail on a rwbb: the only thing i can think of, would be to add +ec to the point of exposing waaaay right - pushing as far to the right as you can...shoot raw of course, and then you may have the detail in the eyes at that exposure, and you can bring down the exposure for the rest of the scene in raw, and then blend the layers in post.

not sure if you can get close enough for a better beamer? that's another way to get a catchlight in the eye...

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tmlphoto wrote:

Nice job Path. I like the 4th one the best. Those small birds are very tough to shoot. Natural light only, or were you using fill flash?

I like the fourth one best also, altho the grackle hiding in the grass appeals to me also. You just have to be patient and allow them time to decide you are not a threat - that may take several days of course:D

Natural light straight from the Sun. I didn't remember to bring the Beamer with me. I will try to do better next time.

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andy wrote:

super work, path!

eye detail on a rwbb: the only thing i can think of, would be to add +ec to the point of exposing waaaay right - pushing as far to the right as you can...shoot raw of course, and then you may have the detail in the eyes at that exposure, and you can bring down the exposure for the rest of the scene in raw, and then blend the layers in post.

not sure if you can get close enough for a better beamer? that's another way to get a catchlight in the eye...

I tried playing with RAW and localized curves ala Marc Muench and could not seem to get anything better than what I posted. Maybe if I was patient enough I could have made two versions from RAW and blended them, but the truth is that Photoshop is a lot better at making good photos better, than making poor lighting good. The females lighter tone was shot in the same light and you can see how much better the detail captured was, as opposed to the coal blacks of the males.

I think I needed the Beamer here to bring out some contrast and highlights in the birds eye. I was not more than 20-30 feet away- well within a Beamer's range. Thank you for commenting, Andy.

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Harryb wrote:

Hey PF,

Everyone is a winner Outstanding

Thanks Harry, but I'll learn more if you are just a little more critical. Not too harsh tho......:D

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I found another frame of a male RW BB - maybe with a little better eye detail and contrast. Hard to beat getting the right exposure in camera.

Steve Cavigliano

Very nice PF, especially the last one


You found out how to get the eye.....lol Andy's suggestions were good too. That's what I do when I can't get them properly positioned vis-avis the light. The rwbb in the last shot is postioned well

Nice, nice, nice


Steve

Khaos

Very nice set. The first is very cool.

Kirwin

Love the grackle in the grass... great perspective. Great series!