Just another little dickie bird, I suppose, but I'm always excited when I get this close to one of these guys in the wild and am able to actually focus (almost) and get a shot off in the nanoseconds that they are close to me. Sigma 400 5.6 APO, Astia, SB-28 fill at -1.7, handheld.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 26, 1999

Answers

Peter,

Very nice. The exposure and composition and exposure seem dead on (providing that when you print, you crop on the left to move the head off of dead center).

The focus however seems to be on the foreground branch rather then the bird, whose eye is a little soft. Still, if you did this with a manual focus lens, I admire your quickness.

"Just another little dickie bird"? Hey, how would he feel if he heard you say that? (laughing). Sorry...couldn't resist : I've had a small parrot for over 10 years and he's a full blown member of the family. :>

Keith

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), April 26, 1999.

Keith, You're right about the focus - hence the almost comment. I use the Sigma on a N6006 body, and the autofocus is virtually worthless to me. Re the little dickie bird comment - I love these guys; taking a half-decent photograph of a passerine is infinitely more rewarding to me than one of an egret or heron. Folks on this forum don't seem to get particularly excited about the microfauna, though. Thanks for your comments.

Peter

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 26, 1999.

It must be difficult to take this shot handheld ... it4s great perhaps the tail is a little out-focus ... and I don4t agree our bird friend is dickie ...

-- Charles Dias (deepblue97a@hotmail.com), April 26, 1999.