Nuthatch

[SieSmith]

Took this in a mixed woodland / garden. A little bit of food on top of the wall and then sit back and wait. Must have been about 6 there within 10 minutes, all taking seed and flying off to hide it in little nooks and crannies in the trees, coming back every few minutes to restock.

Any comments most welcome.

Cheers, Sie

[karenoliver]

Wow I love that you can see the actual nut in its mouth! Nice use of dof too :-)

Karen

[OldBoy]

Must be seen full size. Cracking shot and great background.

[Cathus]

plenty of detail there, I think I'd be tempted to crop in a bit further

[cosmicma]

it's a nice clean photo with plenty of detail and the whites arn't blown out quite a lot i see are
i would prefer to see the nuthatch away from the food which i know isn't that easy but it does make for a better photo

[SieSmith]

Thanks for the replies. I went back today to try to get a bit more of a natural look, as per Cosmicma's suggestion. It was a bit more difficult trying to follow them around as they darted from tree to tree, hiding the seed. But it was good fun. My dinner hour flew though (pardon the pun)





Any other tips/comments?

Cheers, Sie

[matt wilson]

Lovely .

Had never seen one in the flesh until this morning .We have a garden surrounded by oaks now and it's full of things.Must get the camera out.

[cosmicma]

i'm going to be a bit more brutal with my comments but you have asked for more tips or comments

the first of the second two photo's posted although it's in focus and well exposed the pose looks awkward and the eye is dead ( no catchlight ) unfortunatly it makes the photo not very interesting
there is a "classic pose" that you will see in most photo's of nuthatches but it's not the only pose that works but it is the preferable pose so to speak

something like this



this is an image i have posted previously so you might have seen it allready but it gives you an idea of what i'm talking about when i say "classic pose"

i think a catchlight in the eye of most birds is reasonably important without one the eye looks dead and unfortunatly is not a keeper

on a positive side the background is nice and clean the nuthatch is well exposed and the focus is spot on there's nothing wrong with how the photograph was taken

if i was to show you some of my very first photo's of a nuthatch there a lot like yours in fact there worse
i was just happy to get the bird in frame but after a lot of photo's and a considerable amount of time photographing them i tend to wait for a pose i am happy with but even then my photo's are not perfect and i'm allways striving for that better shot

on to the second photo...
to be honest it doesnt work for me
too much in shadow but not a shiloette it looks like your camera has exposed for the background rather than the subject i would be tempted to set the camera manually and go up a stop to try and keep the subject exposed properly

i know this isn't the photo critique thread but you are asking for advice and just posting " lovely photo " tells you nothing about what might be improved hopefully you won't take this the wrong way and you understand it is only my opinion
it's worth finding a nice branch that you can put near the food making sure the background is clean where you decide to place the branch, it will land on the branch along with whatever else comes to feed

all there is to do then is wait for a pose you are happy with

bit like fishing in a sense.......

EDIT...
while i was writing this matt ad posted "lovely" i hope you don't think i was directing my post at anybody in particular it is just something i see in a lot of posts and there's nothing wrong with that but the OP is asking for some advice / tips

[matt wilson]

actually I only really thought no 1 was lovely .

The second and third don't have the same appeal for exactly the reasons you say.

2 .no eye detail.

3 .exposed for background.

If it was me I would trying spot metering or exposure compensation.

[SieSmith]

Thanks for the comments and advice, must try harder.
I'll try and train the birds in the classic pose.

Cheers, Sie