Robert Coleman
February 2025 - Time to refill the feeder
Original
About the Image(s)
We’ve had a cold and snowy January in the DC area, and I’m taken it as an opportunity to work on my bird photography by capturing the birds at my feeder and birdbath in the back yard. Most of my shots have been of different species at one of the feeders or the heated birdbath. I decided to include this one of an Eastern Bluebird flying away from the almost empty feeder after having a nice snack.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 100-400mm lens at 400mm. 1/800 sec. f/5.6. ISO 2500. Noise reduction and sharpening was done in DxO Photolab 8. Further editing in Lightroom Classic.
10 comments posted
Your photo of the snow piled in the background of your bird feeder makes me shiver. Brrrr! The bluebird has wonderful positioning with his wings out and feet lifted. Plus, the bird is sharp with his eye visible and beautiful coloring. The bird feeder with a pile of snow helps to tell the story. The only thing I wish is that the bird was coming towards the feeder instead of away. If you're using this as a nature photo, then you can't change that. However, if you're using this in a more open category, then you could make the flip. Posted: 02/11/2025 20:17:03
Thanks Ruth! It does look better with the bird flipped. I'm not planning on using this image in any competitions. Actually, I'd never tried doing that in Photoshop, so it was educational to try and recreate your image. I wonder if we did the same thing. I selected the bird using object selection, pasted it into a new layer, deleted it from the original layer, and then used generative fill to replace what I had removed. Anyway, here's what I ended up doing. Posted: 02/11/2025 22:10:08
Robert, nice job on figuring out how to flip the bird around in your image. I selected the bird in Photoshop with the Rectangular Marquee tool. Then I flipped the bird with the Edit Transform tool. I used cloning to complete the fencing line that was removed. Kudos for learning new techniques! Posted: 02/12/2025 01:50:29
Hi Robert,
Nice shot! The title of your image makes me smile. It describes well the disappointment of the bird flying out from the bird feeder because of no food left there. Ruth's bird flipping to make it come towards the feeder also works well, depends on the story the image maker wants to convey. The bird and the feeder are sharp. I especially like the blue & orange of the feeder matches with the color of the bird's feather!
I'd prefer to darken the white snow covering the bird feeder's roof and in the background a bit more since it draws the viewer's eyes there. Posted: 02/16/2025 12:43:08
Nice shot! The title of your image makes me smile. It describes well the disappointment of the bird flying out from the bird feeder because of no food left there. Ruth's bird flipping to make it come towards the feeder also works well, depends on the story the image maker wants to convey. The bird and the feeder are sharp. I especially like the blue & orange of the feeder matches with the color of the bird's feather!
I'd prefer to darken the white snow covering the bird feeder's roof and in the background a bit more since it draws the viewer's eyes there. Posted: 02/16/2025 12:43:08
Thank you! Posted: 02/16/2025 23:07:23
Thank you! Posted: 02/16/2025 23:22:13
Robert, what a great capture! Everything is sharp and tells a story of an empty birdfeeder in winter. Ruth's version is nice but I agree with Kieu-Hanh that it depends on the story you wish to convey. Very nice image. Posted: 02/17/2025 00:53:38
Robert,
the fact that a blue bird is there in winter is very edifying. I thought they went further. South, but there he is. I wish he were coming in rather than going out but it is nice to know that he got a good snack, Great idea to take pictures of birds in the winter and I particularly liked the idea of a heated waterbacth. What will they think of next?I see that R ruth did hav the bird coming in. And, I agree, it depends o what story the makers wants to tell. Posted: 02/19/2025 22:40:28
the fact that a blue bird is there in winter is very edifying. I thought they went further. South, but there he is. I wish he were coming in rather than going out but it is nice to know that he got a good snack, Great idea to take pictures of birds in the winter and I particularly liked the idea of a heated waterbacth. What will they think of next?I see that R ruth did hav the bird coming in. And, I agree, it depends o what story the makers wants to tell. Posted: 02/19/2025 22:40:28
Thanks! Posted: 02/20/2025 01:56:12
Thanks! Posted: 02/20/2025 13:12:59