Daryl, this is perfectly framed! I love the way he's got his head tilted 'just so' and appears to be looking right at us. Great details. How are you getting such clear bird shots? Are you using a tripod? Are you set up in advance and wait for them to land? I just can't get anything like this.
@taffy Sorry Taffy for taking so long to get back to you! I saw the question, but I was only on my phone most of the time, and well, I'm horrible about making responses on my cell. You CAN get something like this. No, I don't use a tripod with any of my moving subjects. Birds take a lot of time and patience. I also do NOT use feeders, so my skills have developed over time with some very imperfect "glass." I know I need to upgrade, but I have learned that some things are necessary when light is not ideal and you still want a crisp shot (also, please note, I cropped this to get the framing--often the case when getting close to a bird is hard without treats nearby): Use HIGH ISO to optimize your shutterspeed levels. You want to catch the bird as crisply as possible. Because I have a low level DSLR and pretty inferior glass, the price I pay is the graininess, but I'm starting to make peace with it. You, on the other hand, most likely have a much more powerful camera and better glass, so throw up the ISO some to allow for light (the key to all bird shots) and then take the shutterspeed up as well. Your aperture will need adjusting. I usually test on a spot that I see a bird visiting a few times (this cut down bush, for example) so I can capture the bird when it comes again. The down side, might not be there again. With the exception of when it snowed this year in Jan/Feb, I have caught all my birds waiting for them or chasing them. Very time consuming, so when I know I want a bird shot, I carve out the time at lunch and say it's a birder lunch. :) Hope this helps.
@taffy Oh, and you can see in my processing that I used a lot of smothing and actually had to adjust the exposure--So I have to process a lot more than others because of my camera/glass problem. I really want to rent or borrow another camera to see what I could get so I can invest wisely (that is when I can get some money).
