Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla)

Length 5.25 inches, Wing Span 8 inches, Weight 0.39 oz (11g)

Common and widespread in any wooded area. Small groups may associate with other small songbirds such as kinglets, warblers, nuthatches, creepers, and titmice. Feeds on seeds, insects, and spiders. Voice: Song a simple, high, clear, whistled fee-beeyee with second part lower than first. Call the familiar chattering chickadee dee dee.

Range: From Alaska east to Newfoundland, and south to northern California, northern New Mexico, Missouri, and northern New Jersey. Winters south to Maryland and Texas.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5502copy.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5461.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5529.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5460.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5491.jpg

The bird feeder in the last pictures is why there are so many around here… that’s one of eight feeders in the backyard.

And, the reason some look over-exposed is... they are, I was trying to get some definition between their eye's and feather's.

Nicely Done!

Good Captures Copy_Kot, its real hard to get some eye detail on these guys . I got a bit of detail today but at very high iso .

Thank you Paul and Knight.

Those are great :D

Thank you Amber

Good job! I like the second one - the backlighting and the wind effects are great.

I like the fact that you're stopping down 1 and 1 1/2 stops from WO.

Keep it up :thumbsup: These little guys don't stick to any one spot for long.

These little guys don't stick to any one spot for long.

LOL, they usually stick around just long enough so I can get a nice clear shot of the tree branch they were on.

Thanks Loupey

awesome captures... who is Manuel and how did he get a shooting mode?

awesome captures... who is Manuel and how did he get a shooting mode?

LMAO! I'll get in trouble if I say what I'm thinking :lol: I need glasses... I could have sworn that was the way it was spelled when I was looking at the shooting info :lol: Didn't anyone else catch that?

Anyway... here are a few that were taken when there wasn't enough light for a good shot... so hard to pert width dim :lol:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5932-1.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5926.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5939.jpg

We had a mini blizzard today... I knew these weren't going to turn out too good.

Not turn out good?? Those last 3 are AWESOME! At first I thought you'd added teh grain purposely in post but if that is the snow causing that effect it turned out excellent. It gives the images a water colour feel and really adds to the feel of the images. ALL 3 of them are perfect the way they are. I wouldn't change a thing.......

as for Manuel.. I hear he's playing soccer somewhere in South America and he's mad that you are using his name incorrectly =P . I noticed it too but I hate it when people point put my spelling and grammar mistakes. And being Canadian really messes people up with the way we pick and choose the words between American and British spelling of words like Colour vs. Color...etc

Thanks Jaedon, the last three just had the poster-edge filter applied to them. I used too high of an ISO and shutter speed... I'm dying to get some in-flight shots and couldn't wait for some decent sun.

As for Manuel :lol: I have soooo many jokes going through my head right now that I know I can't use... it's killing me! That's what I get for trying to be fancy... the story of my life :lol:

I like those last three also. They do have an "art" look to them. As for the rest, you've done quite well, my pick is the middle one in the original post. :thumbsup:

Those last three are great! I'd love to see the originals, because if they are half as bad as you say they are, then you've done a stellar job of saving them from the trash bin!

Thank you Payn and Eric.

I went back re-processed one of the in-flight shots. I gave it a crop and then went to image size and increased the resolution from 180 to 300 using Bicubic Sharper. I tried to get the exposure halfway decent, and reduced some noise (mostly the blue channel). After that I tried to do my sharpening the way Eric explained in another thread (thanks again Eric)... Anyway, here is my best attempt at trying to save one of the images without the poster-edge filter... I'm not brave enough to post an unedited shot (I'm still embarrassed about admitting I have a guy named Manuel taking my pics for me :lol: )

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/paulk_68/_MG_5932-2.jpg

No problem with that one!! at least, not at that resolution. The chickadee landing looks like a great capture to me, I sure hope that one cleans up well. It's always like opening xmas presents - getting home from shooting, plugging the camera in - can hardly wait to see if the ones you HOPE are good actually are good...then wondering if you can fix the ones that could be good...

one dirty trick with noise reduction is to mask the subject. Enter quick mask mode, draw a mask on the subject, exit quick mask mode, invert the selection, layer via copy. Then you can use fairly aggressive NR on the background and contributing elements without making the subject look buttery. A much more conservative NR on the subject is often useful too. A really out of focus background can sometimes benefit from a bit of blur filter also.

I'm glad you like the sharpening technique, it seems to work well with my camera and lens, so play with it a bit to get see how it works with yours. Remember that DSLRs use much less in-camera sharpening than my little sony, so it is quite possible that you will need a bit more percentage to really get things sharp. The shot you posted looks plenty sharp to me, this is mostly to get myself off the hook if for some reason you find out later that the numbers were not perfect for your camera. :D

Very nice!!!

thanks for all the EXIF, too…it is a tremendous learning tool.





CJ

Thanks again Eric, and thank you C.J., lol, I don't think you need to learn anything from me.