The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I keep having the good fortune of having this very friendly male pileated woodpecker come in for some suet out back. I hope I’m not overdoing my posts of him but I like to think that I am giving folks some pleasure that just don’t see these guys. Here’s what he looks like close up and deciding which way he’s going to fly. I am always hoping for a nice taking off action shot which is very dificult to accomplish for me. I keep trying.
Specific Feedback
Am I giving him enough room to fly?
Technical Details
Z9, 180-600 lens, Nikon 14 TC, monopod, 1/2500th, f 9.0, 810mm, ISO 25600, cropped to 3098 x 3689.
Oh wow, I love the dynamism implicit in this pose. Take off imminent!! They are so big and loud, I wish I was as lucky, but alas, while there is a pair around generally, they are elusive. Great rimlight here. They always surprise me with the amount of white they have in their plumage. Super job. Does your camera have pre-burst capture? I get take off shots pretty regularly by using it.
Glad you like the shot. I wasn’t aware that my Z9’s pre-burst capture has that ability. It does. I like the idea but I prefer shooting in RAW and I read that it only works in jpeg. I might just have to play with it anyway. Thanks for the suggestion. This guy is VERY unpredictable just when he’s gonna takeoff, and sometimes his direction is not 100% predictable either.
Same here – very nice, with a lovely BG! I would consider blurring the OOF branch at the bottom. I’ve heard of them in town but have never seen one up in our little valley. Maybe the Acorn Woodpeckers have chased them away?
I’ve seen acorns yield to this big feller over the suet block. I tell you what kind’ve rattles Woody’s cage are the gray squirrels. They really make him nervous.
Well that’s just plain weird. I wonder why? My 2018 Lumix G9 can do it with RAW files and the M2 version has even more flexibility in terms of how many photos it will buffer before you hit the shutter. Granted, the read out speed of a smaller sensor makes things easier, but the Z9 is much newer than the G9 M1 so you’d think it would be possible. Still play with it though. I’m thinking about moving to jpg shooting for some things since I quite like the results from the G9 M2 and don’t need RAW for absolutely everything. The pre capture function is PERFECT for this kind of unpredictable action, but use it deliberately - you can really fill up your card with 100s of identical photos of a bird on a stick.
I like the pose–it works very well with the overall comp. A couple of the highlights are very bright, but not a big deal for this image. I expect that the Z9 will have RAW capabilities for pre-release capture…Jim
