Red Wattlebird
I wanted to try and capture the beauty of this bird, so I used a shallow depth of field and got in close to capture the detail....
Read more
I wanted to try and capture the beauty of this bird, so I used a shallow depth of field and got in close to capture the detail.
Read less
Read less
Sep, 2016Views
157
Likes
Awards
Top Shot Award 21
Summer 2020
Top Choice
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Ranks
Top 20 rank
Top 30 rank
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 30 rankTop 30 rank week 2
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in the Dandenong Ranges of Australia. While standing on the back verandah of the house, I spotted a Red Wattlebird perched on a wooden rail with trees off in the distance. I was able to get within 1 meter of the subject.Time
The photo was taken in the late afternoon. I remember well because I had just gotten my new camera and I was eager to try it out. I was really happy when I saw Red Ears (that’s what we called him) out on the verandah. He was my favourite bird.Lighting
I do remember that it was a bit dim. I have struggled a lot to get good photos at this location, so I was really happy that the sun was bright enough to shine through to still light this bird without losing any detail.Equipment
This photo was taken with my Olympus E-510, 70-300mm f4-5.6 at 226mm, on camera flash was used, iso 200, f5.2, and at 1/25 sec.Inspiration
I love nature and live in the mountains, it was the photo that got me into bird photography and led me to pursue the perfect bird in flight photo... an inspiration that has never faded.Editing
I actually love the post-processing side of photography and could spend hours just doing things in editing. However, with this photo, I just brightened up the exposure slightly and did a little bit of noise reduction and sharpening.In my camera bag
The camera I currently use is the Sony A7r II since I love the ability to print really large. I have the Sony 28-70mm lens as well as the Canon 17-40mm, Canon 100mm macro and the Canon 70-300mm which require the Metabones adaptor for Canon lenses. I also have a circular varied neutral density filter.Feedback
I think my advantage here was that I knew this bird well. I knew, if I was quiet and unobtrusive, it wouldn’t fly away. I really like the details in this particular species, so I focused on it up close and, although it was not a very wide aperture at f5.2, I was still able to get the bokeh background because I was so close to the bird and the background trees were quite far away.
