Spinning boreal chickadee (pic included)

[Steve Foss]

I shot a bunch of images of boreal chickadees today. They looked good on the back of the camera, so I experimented with a spinning shot. Slow shutter speed, chickadee was rotating its head fast, only the eye in focus. You see that kind of thing in Audubon and National Geographic sometimes, where the slower shutter allows the movement blur to show how active the bird is.

Got home and found all the standard images weren't sharp (operator error, bad technique), but the experiment turned out how I planned.

Does it work for anyone?

[Dbl]

Frankly I like the shot. I think it is a cool effect.

[jonny_redhorse]

I like the effect....nice photo...jonny

[The_Duckslayer]

Cool, looks like his eye is the anchor and head is spinning around that point. I like it. Thanks for sharing././Jimbo

[hobbydog]

Nice colors. You get the focus from the pine needles. The only thing that I think distracts a bit is the pine needles in the foreground are a bit light or something....maybe a bit different crop our a little PS touch-up.

I have this one that is that has similar affect that I really like. Sorry for the large pic size...

[Xplorer]

Nice shot STF, busy little buggers arn't they?!

Actually it looks like the needles are balsam fir and not pine. The needles have a signature double stripe of white in the underside which produces the lighter coloration. Balsams provide great cover for chickadee's in winter.

On a side note, i have had a group of 6 deer eating out of my birdfeeders in the backyard each evening. They lick the sunflower seed right out of the tray, pretty funny to watch.

[Steve Foss]

Hey Chris:

We've got deer doing the same thing at our feeders each evening. Fun to watch, but it sure drives up the sunflower seed bill.

[Xplorer]

Steve,

For sure I actually got a feed block and put that out on sunday to take some of the pressure off the feeders. My scent must have been on it still as an hour after putting it out 5 deer all took a look and jumped. But last night a solitary big bodied deer was chomping on it about 9pm.

I raised one of the feeders up a bit yesterday so we'll see just how far those deer can reach (of course there is also the corn cob feeder for the squirrels which will probably get hit hard now!).

I'll be listening tomorrow morning, gives me a good laugh I sure could use a little more reggae to get me in the mood if you take requests

Hopefully I'll remember to give ya a call next Wednesday AM on the show, gonna try for around 7:30 or so.