Sherry Icardi  


Loggerhead Shrike Hunting by Sherry Icardi

December 2020 - Loggerhead Shrike Hunting

About the Image(s)

This is a Loggerhead Shrike, a passerine, from our local Wetlands/NWR that I have been frequentling during our Covid quarantine (lots of space, few people and good exercise). I have encountered two of these over the past month on a regular basis. This was a lifer for me and I have enjoyed watching them. They are small but fierce. It is nicknamed the butcherbird after its carnivorous tendencies, as it consumes prey such as amphibians, insects, lizards, small mammals and small birds, and some prey end up displayed and stored at a site, for example in a tree.

This was taken with my Nikon D500 and Nikkor 500mm PF lens. It was processed in Lightroom with minimal changes except normal tweaks required from Raw files and cropping.

1/1250
F/5.6
ISO 100


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




 
Very clear portrait of this bird. Good focus and great posture with the neck turned.

I would use LR or PS to brighten the catchlight in the eye and that will make it even more stand-out. When using this lens, I would have stopped the lens down to f/11 given that you had so much light available to be at ISO 100. That will give more DOF.

I have read varied comments about the PF version of the 500mm 5.6 lens. Plus is definitely the low weight and the price. Have you noticed the minus points yourself?
  Posted: 12/05/2020 10:51:14
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
I have, there are some negatives especially the slowness to autofocus on birds in flight. It is particularly difficult when you have a light bird against a light background. For me that is probably the biggest one since I am still working to perfect birds in flight. Since this was my first prime it took me a while to learn how to find my subject. Having used zooms for a long time where I zoomed in after I located the bird was a tough transition. But for me having weight that I could manage was a critical factor. I like the lens and love the bokeh.

One interesting note is I tried the 300pf and was not thrilled with it, mainly because of the bokeh

I clearly would hesitate to use a teleconverter on it though. I also have a Sony A7r4 which I am still learning. And still trying to maintain muscle memory for the Nikon so I switch back and forth regularly. Hope to eventually get comfortable with the Sony like I am with Nikon. Doubt I would ever desert Nikon.   Posted: 12/16/2020 08:30:26



Donald Dunn   Donald Dunn
Neat bird! Great composition, good focus and depth of field. I really like it!   Posted: 12/07/2020 14:39:49



Peter Dominowski   Peter Dominowski
So nice to see this bird so clearly! Great uncluttered background, everything appears to be in focus to my eyes.

You may prefer to keep your bird portraits completely natural, which I respect. A tiny suggestion would be to experiment with the highlights and texture sliders in LR, to bring out additional details on the shrike's white breast.   Posted: 12/14/2020 18:19:02
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
Thanks Peter! I'll give it a try!   Posted: 12/16/2020 08:18:41