Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) feeding at a popular tree stump.
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) feeding at a popular tree stump.
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Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo a few hours after a snowstorm at Kensington Metropark in South Lyon, Michigan - one of my favorite spots for nature and wildlife photography.Time
This photo was taken during mid morning to early afternoon.Lighting
This photo was taken using all natural light. The sun was shining through the clouds and because of the snow on the ground which was reflecting a lot of the ambient light back up onto the subject, getting the correct exposure was a bit of a challenge.Equipment
This photo was shot using a Canon 7D Mk II body fitted with a Sigma 150-500mm APO HSM lens and was handheld.Inspiration
I love photographing the different songbirds at Kensington Metropark and I enjoy watching the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They are full of character and are amazing birds to watch.Editing
I did a little post processing with Lightroom to correct for exposure issues and I cropped a little out of the frame to remove a couple of artifacts that drew attention from the main focus of the image.In my camera bag
I have a habit from my days in the armed forces of carrying everything with me in a huge backpack... I guess some habits die hard because I can usually be found trudging through the woods with a huge backpack on my back with all my gear which includes several lenses, tripod, flashes, and a bunch of other stuff... better to have and not need, than to need and not have as the saying goes... I never really know what I am going to photograph on any given day so I pretty much carry everything with me. I am a devout Canon guy as far as camera bodies are concerned and a Sigma super fan when it comes to lens selection.Feedback
When photographing birds, to get good action images you need to study the bird first to learn its behavior. Being able to predict what a bird will do, which direction it will fly off in and any cues it gives prior to taking off will definitely help in making for some really cool images. Being patient, and being able to stay put without spooking the wildlife is also a plus. On the technical side, if you are like me and prefer not to spook the wildlife by using bright flashes, you will need a pretty high shutter speed and have your ISO and aperture set to compensate. While some people will prefer to use AV/TV modes for this, I always shoot in manual mode so in order to freeze the action with birds in flight, I always use shutter speeds of around 1250 to 2000 and compensate accordingly with a higher ISO and aperture settings depending on the depth of field I am using for a particular image.
