Red-Naped Sapsucker

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

MooseJctRed-NapedLookingTDE.jpg
MooseJctRed-NapedLookingTDE.jpg1560×2000 1.04 MB

MooseJctRed-NapedSapHoleTDE.jpg
MooseJctRed-NapedSapHoleTDE.jpg1568×2000 1.05 MB

Checking for Sap

MooseJunctionRed-NapedSapsuckerTDL.jpg
MooseJunctionRed-NapedSapsuckerTDL.jpg1442×2000 963 KB

Tree Check

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

This Red-Naped Sapsucker was working this birch tree at the Moose Junction Visitor Center in Grand Teton NP. It was extraordinarily persistent and stayed with the tree for a good fifteen to twenty minutes while my wife waited for the visitor center to open. There was pretty good foot traffic going past it the whole time that didn’t seem to phase it one bit. It had a pretty good thing going with this tree as you can see from the sap holes it had drilled up and down and all around the trunk.

Specific Feedback

I know these are pretty similar poses, but I liked the head turn in the first image best. I also liked the hole check and the catch light in the second and third. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Technical Details

Canon R5, f8, 1/2000 sec, iso 12800, 100-500 lens with 1.4 TC, at 420 mm on all three images. Applied Topaz denoise.

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2

Nice detail and processing in all three images, Ed. I agree that the first is the best conventional image, but the other to do show interesting behavior. I don’t know if you cropped these at all, but they all feel a bit tight in the frame to me.

3

Great look at this fellow! Fine detail and colours throughout.
Seems a little tight in the crop, and I’d suggest maybe moving the 'pecker down in the frame a bit.
Fine work!

4

Hi Ed, nice catches of this beautiful bird… I love the straight on view as well as the behavioral aspect of the series. The framing looks fine to me except I agree putting the bird slightly lower in the frame could be an improvement. Nice exposure and details. Well done.

5

Thank you @Dennis_Plank, @Sandy_Richards-Brown, and @Allen_Sparks. I did crop them a bit. I think there was some distracting foliage around the bird that I was trying to take out. I will go back and see if I can move them down a bit. There was some landscaping behind me when I tried to take these that I was trying not to trample at the time. My 100-500/1.4TC only gives me a range of 420 mm - 700 mm to work with. Too close in some cases.

6

420 at the low end? Should be 140 unless Canon invented a new mathematics.

7

@Dennis_Plank, yep, they invented new math Dennis.

So I’ve put my old 100-400 EF on my old 7DMii without a TC, and I have my 5DMiii set up with my 24-105 lens. That way I get a full range. I also have a 100 macro lens with a flash unit and diffuser that I’m planning to use when I go to Arizona next month for our annual insect expedition with my son.

8

Where did you find someone to tote all that gear?

9

:slightly_smiling_face: :sweat_smile: Its mostly in my van, but I also have them packed into a day pack when I go hiking. I usually have the biggest set up in hand. . .

10

Ed, what a cooperative subject. I know you can’t see the eye in the second pose, but I was immediately attracted to it because it shows such concentration on the job at hand. The others are more “standard” here-is-my-eye poses. I might consider cropping out more of the background. It is very bright and seems to demand more than its share of attention. What a great way to spend time waiting for the visitor’s center to open.

11

Thank you @Barbara_Djordjevic. I appreciate your thoughts.