This is a little Black-capped Chickadee Parus articapillus that was waiting its turn to come pick out a sunflower seed at one of our feeders on our back deck.
The original was cropped quite a bit since the shot was taken between two trees that occupied a good chunk of the foreground. I was left with a 1200x1200 shot, only got for a 6in x 6in print:(
The shot was taken on an overcast afternoon. I prefer this type of light when shooting birds: I find it easier to avoid blown-out highlights.
The bokeh is made up of branches of a large maple tree that was blown over during hurricane Juan back in 2003. The birds use it as concealment before making their final approach.
Not a whole lot of editing. Some colour adjustment with a curves layer, a bit of dodging on the bird and a quick minimal pass through Neat Image. Resized and sharpened. C'est tout.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 241 Avg (all users): 7.1532 Avg (commenters): 8.4333 Avg (participants): 7.0252 Avg (non-participants): 7.2845 Views since voting: 15546 Views during voting: 415 Votes: 235 Comments: 69 Favorites: 49 (view)
ohh.. lucky me... I get the first place image to critique :)
well.. first off, congrats on a winning image.. obiously it is well done.
so...
good use of thirds, having the bird in the bottom right corner, looking up and too the left creates a very strong image. The branch entering in the bottom left corner leads the eye to the bird, making it a pleasing image to look at. The tree's in the background create a very simple and pleasing bokeh with very natural, organice lines, nicely contrasting the sharp image of the bird.
good job.. I also like how you didn't crop any more of the photo.. i like that the bird takes up only a small portion of the frame.
good grief, i can't get over how freakin cute that bird is...i just want to sqeeze it! but since i can't, i guess i'll just have to fave it--cause everytime i see it, it makes me smile. :)
congrats on another blue--i bet jacques is starting to get a little worried! ;)
Let's hear it for the East Coast. ;) Amazing detail for such a tight crop. Thanks for posting your setup and original. Great stuff. When's the Atlantic Canada GTG?
Woohoo! Thanks for all the votes and comments folks.
I was on pins and needles about this one all week. The score kept fluctuatiing back and forth, back and forth. I knew it was doing well and that it had a chance at the top-3, but I was sure other images were going to do better ribbon-wise. Glad to see that I was wrong!
Nova: Lens used was my Canon 300mm f4 IS. This badboy is a joy to work with! I was completely taken aback when I saw that I captured this at 1/100. These little guys hardly sit still.
Here is the original image:
As you can see, I did some serious cropping. Even with all that cropping, the image quality was still very high. A testament to lense's quality.
Beagleboy you have performed very well here. I am so glad that you did it without the obvious spherical aberration rings which some members persisted is the only bokeh. This is just lovely to look at.
Great shot and good use of bokeh to make the subject stand out. It might have been a bit better if the lighter branches in the backgound didn't stand out as much, but short of editing, I'm not sure what you could have done to prevent this.
Very nice indeed. The framing is terrific, and I love the level of detail you managed to capture. The background really accentuates the downy softness of the feathers. Great work. I hope to see you ribbon.
Even without the signature circle of confusion artifacts, I would still consider this bokeh. I think your composition is classic rule of thirds. Good job.
You captured a beautiful little bird here, I envy you I have such a hard time getting close to birds to get this type of shot. Congratulations you did a very nice job with the background.
I wonder what other comments people are going to give to you. Some may find the branch bokeh in the background distracting....but I kind of like it! Nice focus on the bird...very sharp. 8!
I have tried so to get a decent picture of these pretty birds -- very difficult due to their black and white feathers. You pulled it off beautifully, and even got a tiny glint in the eye. The branch is perfectly lit and in focus, and I like the blurred branches in the background. Very nice!
aw, i just love this. :) besides the fact that that is THE cutest little bird ever--the picture is wonderful. simplicity at its finest--and awesome composition, colors and...by my uneducated definition...bokeh. :) really nice work.
This is absolutely divine. I hoep you win a ribbon for this. It's perfect in every way. Love the way the feathers look, the detail and the expression. 10
Out of the Thicket
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