Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (Three Photographs)
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My books tell me this is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I had never seen one before. My wife and I took a short trip into Quebec and found a few nature paths including one out of the resort/city of Montebello. Walking along we just happened on this bird who for the most part tried to hide from us before flying out of range.
Pigeons (Two Photographs)
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I am used to seeing pigeons in large numbers in many public places. But I don’t think I have seen them in a forest situation before (albeit on the grounds of resort). These two stood statue-like for a while before preening, two chilled out birds!
Chestnut Warbler (Three Photographs)
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Surprisingly, and after using more than one method, the white balance here is correct, as are the colours. It’s an interesting tonality. It’s a rare bird for me and was hard to capture. So I am very pleased.
Focusing on Small Birds (Two Photographs)
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This is a Yellow Warbler like the one I posted last week. Yellow Warblers don’t sit still for long. They tend to be on the other side of small branches. The issue then is how to get a good focus on the bird. You notice that I am on the edge with the first shot and slightly off in the second. This is typical even with long lenses, a good camera and decent depth of field (e.g. F8). The camera is easily filled by the branches. You get the bird with what you think are good shots and discover you have better focus on the branches than the bird. Sharpening can help, shake reduction might help too. However the better answers are either not to shoot birds deep in the branches, or increase your F Stop significantly. The former works all the time, and the second in my experience can lead to more distractions than one would like in the background. Conclusion: small birds are hard to shoot and when you do get a good shot, celebrate.
Red-Winged BlackBird (Two Photographs)
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These birds are mostly black and that creates issues for detail while the brighter colours challenge the colour palate available on computers. In this case my exposure was lucky and the bird stayed relatively still. I left the broken branch in just because fixing it changed the blue background and I could not figure out why. Lastly, the publichave been warned that they are currently nesting and can get quite testy and attack people who come too close.
Canada Goose (Three Photographs)
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I like the reflections I can get when photographing Canada Geese. In this case the palate of colours captured in camera was an added benefit, perhaps a bit saturated but I was impressed. So I left this pretty much as you see it here with only a few adjustments. As I say most software wants to add saturation to every photo, and sometimes you have to fight back 🙂
Baltimore Oriole (Three Photographs)
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There seem to be more orioles around than in earlier years, still a rare sighting for me. My excitement sometimes overrides my good sense, and my framing or settings suffer as I rush to shoot, especially early in the season. I was really lucky here with the light and the bird staying in one place long enough to get a few shots.
