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FollowA Red-Bellied Woodpecker On A Post
A Red-Bellied Woodpecker On A Post
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johnboland
May 05, 2016
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
In my backyard, I have a bird sanctuary setup in the woods.Time
This was taken during the early morning hours around 5 am, I remember spilling the coffee in my lap when I hurried to point the lens in the right directionLighting
I was hoping to get the soft blue morning sky in the shot, so I found a precise location to crouch down to get some of the dreamy blue sky in the backdropEquipment
I used my full frame body (Canon EOS 5D Mark III) the lens used was the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC. This was shot with a tripod and gimbal head as well, specifically: The Feisol Tournament CT-3442 Rapid 4-Section Carbon Tripod with a Wimberley WH-200 Gimbal Tripod Head IIInspiration
I am an avid birder and try to spend at least an hour a day watching my fine feathered friends from behind a lensEditing
I did some selective sharpening using Topaz Labs Clean 3, and I also wanted to pop some of the white contrasts in the feathers, so I used Topaz Labs Glow, selectively masked and blended to get a better contrastIn my camera bag
When I am birding I pack a full frame and a crop sensor body, my Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and a Canon EOS 7D. The two lenses I pack for bird shots are the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USMFeedback
My bird sanctuary includes many natural perches all placed withing 8 feet of feeder sources. Most birds like to perch and view a food source before going to it. This also allows for more natural environment shots as well, as a feeder in the shot is not what most people want to see. As woodpeckers like high protein food sources, I place dried meal-worms in the perches. In this case, I drill ed small holes on the back side of this perch and placed them in there. The benefit of this is the bird will stay on the perch much longer allowing for more captures and better shot possibilities.