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Rainbow Lorikeet on guard

With half a dozen birds eating grapes, this one was sitting at the top apparently acting as a lookout for the others.

With half a dozen birds eating grapes, this one was sitting at the top apparently acting as a lookout for the others.
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Canon EOS 1300D

settings

Aperture f/6.3 ISO 200 Shutter 1/200 Focal Length 400/1

upload_date

Apr, 2020

Views

210

Likes

+11

Awards

Zenith Award

Curator's Selection

Spring 21 Award

Summer 2020

Superb Composition

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

Absolute Masterpiece

Peer Award

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 30 rank

Top 20 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in my back yard in mid-autumn. I have a rather large grapevine growing along inside of an eastern boundary fence. This was end-of-season for the grapes and the smell of the ripe grapes attracts a number of bird varieties. About a dozen Rainbow Lorikeets are regular visitors at this time and they help clean up the excess and left-over grapes.

Time

Taken around 3:00pm the late autumn sun is lighting the bird from the front, providing a soft catch light in the eye. The sunlight is not harsh due to some cloud cover.

Lighting

These birds are quite skittish and fly off at the slightest sense of danger so there was no opportunity to set up any artificial lighting. Plus I was approx. 30 feet away. Natural sunlight had to do for this image.

Equipment

I use a Canon 1300D and for this shot I added a 400mm manual focus M42 mount lens. For stability I leaned against the side of a rainwater tank as setting up a tripod would have alarmed the birds and sent them on their way. I stood about 10 metres from the birds as any closer approach sends them flying off.

Inspiration

Rainbow Lorikeets are very colourful and make an attractive subject. I also wanted to record their presence as visitors to my yard. The subject of this image was also very interesting. Each day nearly a dozen lorikeets would descend on my grapevine and busy themselves inside the canopy of leaves, eating the ripe grapes hanging there. One bird, maybe a different one each time, would sit at the top of the grapevine and keep watch, not eating while the others feasted. Any signs of danger and it would cry an alarm and fly off, followed rapidly by the rest of the flock. I especially wanted to capture that 'guard' stance.

Editing

The image is straight out of camera except for some cropping to obtain the composition I wanted. I record both RAW and jpg images so that I can adjust the image if necessary but in this instance I felt that the jpg was satisfactory without any other post-processing.

In my camera bag

I use a Canon 1300D DSLR. In addition to the kit lens I have several M42 mount prime lenses (28mm, 55mm, 135mm and 400mm) and a 70-200mm zoom lens, all purchased many years ago for use with my SLR film camera. They are still useful with a modern DSLR. I also use a Velbon tripod from the same era.

Feedback

The main thing I would stress for this type of subject is to focus on the eye(s). Like any portrait having the eye in focus, preferably with some sort of catch light, can bring your subject to life. Beyond that, be patient and try not to do anything to spook your subject while you go about getting your composition.

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Rainbow Lorikeet on guard

With half a dozen birds eating grapes, this one was sitting at the top apparently acting as a lookout for the others.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow spader

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