Spotted Towhee

A rare and, for me, somewhat unfortunate break in the clouds on Saturday coincided with this Towhee coming into the open at the far end of my ground pool. I would have liked more room in front of the bird, but I blew the framing and this was the only shot it gave me before moving on. With that background, I couldn’t see content aware fill working very well, so I didn’t even try it. In this case, I chose not to try to tame the specular highlights as I thought they fit the image.

With the unexpected emergence of the sun, this image was about 1 stop overexposed, which I compensated for in post processing.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Anything.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Anything.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 468 mm, tripod with ballhead and Sidekick mount, f/8, 1/400, iso 1600, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Noise reduction was performed, but not really necessary. No feather enhancement in this one. Basically just exposure adjustments and cropping a bit from the right and bottom. Taken from my permanent blind on June 28th at 9:49 am under mostly cloudy skies.

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Nice capture, Dennis. I have yet to get an opportunity at photographing a Towhee. I don’t mind backgrounds such as this. I like to see wildlife enjoying the natural environment. Works for me.

Best,
Terry