A species I rarely get in flight, or even taking off.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning in the mountains I had a stroke of luck when I captured this female Yellow Warbler just as she was taking off. These small warblers are so darn fast I usually just get “air shots” when I try to photograph them taking off or in flight. I award bonus points to the image for catching her wings fully open and having good light on her face and a distinct catch light in her eye, with a penalty point or two subtracted because her face and eye are just a hair short of being razor sharp. A slightly faster shutter speed might have prevented that little problem. Or maybe not.
I never know for sure whether to call a photo like this one a takeoff shot or a flight shot because we can’t see if her feet are still on the perch (the vertical reddish twig behind her butt). I suppose that’s splitting hairs but I try to be accurate about stuff like that.
Anyway, warbler shots like this one are unusual enough for me to not even be bothered by that bright and slightly distracting stem end in front of part of her right wing. See, “Captain Picky” isn’t always so picky.
Ron
Seensational shot Ron!
Charlotte Norton
As my wife says, the only thing relevant in the “Golden Years” is the color of the urine.
I’ll be chuckling about that one for a while, Richard.
What a beauty. I am glad that Captain Picky stayed (mostly) in the background.
And very glad to see this little charmer this morning. Thank you. Being able to pore over the details in a shot like this is a never ending treat.
The Golden Years? Decidedly fool’s gold in my case…
Thanks, EC. The Pyrite Years, right?
Very nice flight capture and light. Good you are able to get out more comfortably. I hope the recovery will still continue and alleviate the other leg and hip pain. My skin is starting to calm down from my last adventures so I hope to get out next week. I am going to have to take up night photography and hiking with my increase in light sensitivity. Sure wish I could find an answer to my sudden photo sensitivity, current treatment has stopped working as well. Those golden years are a bit tarnished……
April, the so called Golden Years suck for many of us. I sure took excellent overall health and feeling spry for granted when I was younger.
I wish you luck with your skin issues. I know from experience they aren’t any fun either.
Extraordinary wing display which, though not an everyday occurrence, you do achieve regularly enough to be better ascribed to experience and being there than any sort of luck would account for.
Primaries, secondaries, tertials, and more layers of coverts beautifully fringed in gold than I can confidently name. Plus the alula, more like a pinky than a thumb, just below the intruding twig.
What I’d really like to know, though, is the name of those little pendulous flowers on the left. Snowberry?
Thank you, Lyle. I wondered about those flowers too. I’ll ask a friend who is botany oriented and get back to you.
Lyle, they are Roundleaf Snowberry blooms.
Thanks, Mia. I figured you’d know.
Thank you, Mia. The bumblebees and honeybees are all over our species (Common Snowberry) right now here in NW Washington.
Beautiful shot Ron. It is all that you say it is. That stem does bother me and if I had PS I think I would remove it, but that’s just me.
I’m interested in your post back surgery. Do you have to be careful getting in and out of the truck? Is it painful at all when you are out photographing birds. How about when handling your equipment?
Everett, removing stuff like that isn’t my style. But that’s just me…
For the first week or so, getting in and out of my pickup was very painful, but that’s partly because the incision dressing was so thick it pressed against the fresh incision when I sat back in my pickup seat. I hardly notice it now that the dressing is gone and there’s been some healing.
At this point my biggest issue is symptoms in my legs and hips when I’m sitting and walking, symptoms I had before the surgery. I’m worried that I might have to have another surgery, a more serious spinal fusion this time, down the road. My surgeon warned me that that might be a possibility. I have to wait until 6 weeks after this surgery to know if I need to have the fusion done.
As an old high school buddy told me yesterday, “These Golden Years ain’t so golden”…
Really beautiful, especially admire the widely-fanned wings. To my eye, the
overlapping white twig and spear of grass serve to establish a sense of depth
and habitat to the visual field– I like them !
You’re right, Kris. That twig does enhance the 3-dimensional aspects of the image.
Neat! Great capture, Ron! 🙂 They and other small birds ARE a bitch to capture taking off. 😉 Wonder if what appears to be wear marks on her lower back are from breeding or “just that way”?
39 this morning! Wonder if I’ll get tomatoes this year if the temps keep up the yo-yo thing?
“Wonder if what appears to be wear marks on her lower back are from breeding or “just that way”?”
I don’t know, Judy. I’ve never been very good at interpreting plumage variations like that.
If it makes you feel any better (probably won’t) my garden, including my tomatoes, is in a sad state of affairs thanks to my bad back and resulting surgery. Pisses me off.
Didn’t even notice the stem because her face is so sharp. Charming! (FYI am on a puffin quest in Reykavik.)
Kathleen, I’m probably hypersensitive to minor “flaws” in my images like that twig because I spent so many years being active in an online bird photography critique forum
Good luck in Iceland!