Cape May Warbler

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Had a real fallout overnite,new birds in the yard today were:Harris's Sparrow,Grosbeaks,Orioles,Indigo Bunting,Yellow Warbler,and this Cape May who is assaulting my apple tree's blossoms. Pretty cooperative bird,I got about 60 keeper images of him and wanted to share a couple. This weekend should be fun!

[finnbay]

Very pretty, MM!

[panthrcat]

well I gotta say when the first one come up,, I was in awe of the contrast of colours,, UNTIL the second one come up,, that second one blows me away!!! stunning colours, clarity, DOF, focus,, outstanding work!

[fishinchicks]

The second one looks like it should go on a tourism brochure.

Both are gorgeous, but the second one is stunning.

[panthrcat]

man I keep coming to this thread just to have another peek... I can't get over how crisp it is,, please share with us how you got it so brilliant! tripod of course,, yes?

[Dbl]

Very nice MM!

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Nope,no tripod,it was handheld. I had my mono pod out for awhile,but those Warblers jump around so much in the branches that the monopod was useless. I just hold as steady as I can,and get as close as I can.

I sure love this time of year,even the average Goldfinch pops pretty decent. I shot this one while waiting for the Warblers to return.

[panthrcat]

unfreakin believable!! love the pinks, blues and yellows!! wow!!!!!!!!!!

[panthrcat]

I feel sheepish in asking, as I should probably know what everybody here shoots now,, but er,, what do you shoot?

a canon right? that's a cannon lens,, what's the lens ,, a 400mm?

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Yes this was with a 50D Canon,Canon lens @300mm,F4.5,Shot in the smaller SRAW1 format [7.1mp]. The 50D is a pretty decent camera,but I have always thought the 15mp it offers is overkill and I almost never use it at full resolution. I never print bigger than 20x30,and if you fill the frame,7mp is enough. I'm hoping they [Canon] retain the 40D in the line up but add the 50D's key features-Unbelievable LCD,lens micro adj.,iso 6400,DiGiC 4 processor,and keep it at 10.1mp-it would be the perfect 1.6 crop body-for me anyway.

This morning I see there is also a Blackburnian and another Yellow Warbler in the same tree,so hopefully I can get some more images tonight-gotta leave for work now-

Thanks.

[panthrcat]

yea work keeps getting in my way too, but of course without it, I wouldn't be able to buy all my fancy schmancy stuff,, but of course hubbys' job has been a help too

I'll watch for your new images

[ShawnZ]

Apple blossoms and a cape may warbler, hmmmmm.. I don't see how you could go wrong with that combination, never mind you just have to walk out your door to get it! Lucky, lucky you! The warmth and quality of the light is superbly put to work in the second image, you even get great detail in the shadowed area of the bird. Awesome how the sky outlines the bird in that image, with nothing transecting the head, beak, or upper body........ incredible image. Also love that this is not a setup, it's a spontaneous capture that still retains many of the qualities that a setup image might have.

[Birdsong]

I don't even know what more could be said about these. I am speechless!

[eyeguy 54]

Sweet shots MM!

[Steve Foss]

Really nice work, MM. Great setting and light!

[MARINERMAGNUM]

It was pouring down rain most of today here but I did have brief sightings of the Blackburnian Warbler after 5pm,but was forced to watch from the house with binocs. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better weather for shooting.

I was going to delete this image as I messed up and didn't frame the shot properly,so it wasn't one of my keepers. I cropped/rotated it a little,and couldn't bring myself to delete it after thinking about how I waited through that whole frigid winter to see these beautiful little guys. I only wish their visit wasn't so brief.

[Dotch]

Fantastic photos MM! I wouldn't kick myself too hard over that last image. Much better than any of us non-photo savvy folk could ever dream of taking. Your apple trees are about 4 - 5 days ahead of those here. Don't you ever wonder what might show up if you just stayed home and played hooky once in awhile?

[Steve Foss]

Sue, unless someone uses the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop, the images posted here will have the camera/lens/capture data, called exif data, embedded in them.

You can download a free program to view exif. Just do a Google search for exif viewer or exif reader and you'll find one. When you have it, just open it, drag the image off the site onto your desktop and click down on "file" and "open."

I always use the "Save for Web" because it saves bandwidth on the site by stripping unneeded data, but that includes stripping exif data. That's why I generally post my exif data with the image, so people can see what was done and learn what to do/not to do based on that.

[panthrcat]

ah, thanks for the tip Steve

[Birdsong]

You could delete him into my keep file any day. There is no irruption of warblers here yet, but inklings of things to come, I hope. I came back from walking the dog to an indigo bunting in immature plummage, a black and white climbing up a tree trunk, and a rose-breasted at a feeder. Now a peak of sunshine would be perfect.