Marcela Stegemueller  


Mockingbird by Marcela Stegemueller

November 2020 - Mockingbird

About the Image(s)

There is an angry mockingbird who is often fighting his own reflection on my window. I was lucky to be able to take his picture with his mouth wide open. I have heard several stories as to why they do this. Some say that they do this when they are hot and some say it does not mean anything. It is just something they do like fluttering their wings. I had never seen it before so I was thrilled. Please notice the reflection of my window frame on his eye.

My settings were 1/2500 sec. at F/6.3, ISO 2000 handheld. I took it from inside my room at 194mm with my 70-200 mm lens.

At this point, I have used DeNoise to reduce the digital noise, basic adjustments in Camera Raw, and cropped the image. I believe it qualifies as a Nature picture. I wish the background was not so busy. Is there anything else I can do and still keep it as a Nature picture?


This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted




Bob Crocker   Bob Crocker
Nice image Marcela. Good capture through glass, the birds eye looks pretty sharp even at that high ISO. Getting his mouth open really adds some personality to the image; make you wonder what he's yelling about. Boy, I know what you mean about the background, seems all my bird shots have cluttered background. Maybe for future shots, a smaller aperture would blur the background a little. For this shot, I might be tempted to ignore the rule of thirds and crop the image with the bird in dead center, all those branches on the right are a distraction. After that crop, applying a vignette may help tone down the background and place more emphasis on the bird.   Posted: 11/10/2020 11:04:23



Jessica Manelis   Jessica Manelis
Great capture. I think you did very well since it is through a glass window. You also managed to capture the bird showing it's personality. Is it chirping, is it hungry? The background is a little distracting. As Bob suggested in the future you could try a smaller aperture, but since you never know if there will be a next time with this shot, have you tried trying to just blur the background slightly with software?   Posted: 11/11/2020 12:40:49



Cindy Lynch   Cindy Lynch
I agree that this is a great capture with reasonably good focus on your bird. While I really like the background, it is a little busy. I think making this a vertical crop by cropping quite a bit from the right and darkening down the background, you could keep the focus on the bird.   Posted: 11/14/2020 11:50:19



Andrew Carstensen   Andrew Carstensen
A sharp image for shooting through a glass window. The subject definitely has a story to tell. The colors compliment each other and although background is busy, the mockingbird holds the interest of the picture.   Posted: 11/25/2020 10:36:45