frankjrosetti
Follow... Black-capped Chickadee
... Black-capped Chickadee
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MeghanElizabeth
July 13, 2014
This is pure lovely. Chickadees alone are hard enough to capture, but while eating a worm is near impossible. Really beautiful work.
ferdhart
May 02, 2015
Luv this little guy! Set apart by shallow depth of field and directional light this little guy gets my full attention!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
In the trees and shrubbery along the bank of the Allegheny River flowing through Olean in Western New York.Time
Mid-Afternoon, between three and four o'clock. High, brilliant sunshine. Early Spring.Lighting
It was a brilliant sunny day with the sun high in the sky which made for a very contrasty shooting environment. Additionally, shooting into the shade of trees and bushes made it all the more tricky to capture a nice exposure. I set my camera at 200 ISO (for shade) and selected aperatue-priority mode which gave me a setting of F5.6 (the depth-of-field I wanted for a sharp Chickadee and a blurred background) and 1/125 exposure (fast enough for a sitting bird). I then added two-thirds of a stop for exposure compensation to ensure a correct image in the shade.Equipment
For this shot I used a Canon Rebel (T2i) camera with a Tamron AF (auto-focus), F4-5.6, SP70-300mm lens with VC (vibration control). Also, I used a Manfrotto monopod with a Giotto ballhead attached. The Tamron lens was equipped with a lens hood but I use no filters of any kind as I believe they all degrade the image to some degree.Inspiration
It was early spring and the birds were returning to Western New York after migrating south for the winter, so there would be plenty of opportunities to capture all types of birds. However, the trees were rapidly filling-out with leaves, the leaves that birds love to hide in. So my window of opportunity was a short two weeks or so. Many birds arrived: Blue Jays, Robins, American Goldfinches, and more. One day, while scouting for shooting opportunities, along the riverbank I noticed that several Black-capped Chickadees had set up house in a tree stump next to the river. I hunkered-down nearby and waited for some great shots. Soon enough, Chickadees were all about in the nearby trees. One in particular got my attention as it landed on a branch; it had a neon-green worm in it's beak! I was able to fire-off several shots and knew immediately I had something special. Once I uploaded the Chickadee shots to my computer, I saw that I had indeed captured a special image of that bird. Fantastic!Editing
Cropped the image to enhance the Chickadee and adjusted contrast and sharpness a little bit. Color is as taken by the camera.In my camera bag
In addition to the Canon T2i, I carry two Tamron lens: a AF, F4-5.6, 70-300mm zoom with VC, and a AF, F2.8, 17-50mm zoom with VC. Sometimes I take my Canon 1.8, 50mm when I want a 'regular' perspective that I want as sharply captured as possible. Always carry lens cleaner, lens tissue and air brush in my camera bag, just in case. Depending upon the shooting situation I am attempting, I carry either my monopod or my professional Bogen tripod.Feedback
Lighting is the KEY to every great capture, no matter what it might be! High contrast situations are hard to work with but I was able to get around the toughest time of day to shoot (brilliant noonday sunshine) and capture an excellent Chickadee image by adjusting for shots in shade which considerably leveled-out the contrast. For this image, using aperature-priority, I compensated for the low light of the shaded image by adding two-thirds of exposure compensation. Often, if I am unsure of exposure, I bracket my shots which has given me just the right exposure for many shooting situations.