![\"northern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/northern-flicker-7106b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Monday was one of the coldest days we’ve had in years – it was 12 degrees below zero F when I arrived at Farmington and it only warmed up a few degrees all morning.\u00a0\u00a0 When I approached this Northern Flicker I fully expected it to vamoose as they nearly always do\u00a0but it stuck.\u00a0 I suspect there were two reasons for that – the extreme cold and the plethora of twigs and branches it was buried in that gave it a feeling of security.<\/p>\n I like the look at the color under the tail and the red malar of this male\u00a0but those out of focus\u00a0branches drive me nuts, so in the end\u00a0I was seduced by the clone tool.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, multiple twigs removed<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I obviously like this version best but it’s not real – not by a long shot.\u00a0 And after all, I’m a nature<\/em> photographer.\u00a0 I would never print this version or include it in my galleries but I couldn’t resist seeing what it looked like without all those distractions.\u00a0 The clone tool can really be a temptress…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, single twig removed<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Later in the morning I came across this male Downy Woodpecker that also let me get close.\u00a0This is the cleanest shot I have of the species but even here I removed a single out of focus twig poking into the frame at bottom.<\/p>\n Is removing a single twig any less offensive than\u00a0removing many?\u00a0 That’s a question I struggle with because cloning is a slippery slope of degrees – from removing dust spots to adding canvas for composition, to adding catch lights to the eye to cloning elements into the setting that weren’t even there.<\/p>\n Every photographer has some ethical decisions to make on this issue.\u00a0 I try to confine myself to cloning out dust\u00a0spots and occasionally adding canvas but sometimes I just can’t resist cloning out small, distracting elements.<\/p>\n Like I said, the clone tool is a temptress.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Addendum:\u00a0 In comments two readers have asked to see the Downy Woodpecker without the out of focus twig removed, so here it is:<\/em><\/p>\n \n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n