![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/western-scrub-jay-4636b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-scrub-jay-4636b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nBlue on blue.<\/p>\n
My recent posts have been long and wordy, probably to a fault, so I’ll try to make up for it today with a\u00a0more concise\u00a0edition of Feathered Photography.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Woodhouses\u00a0Scrub Jays (previously known as Western Scrub Jays)\u00a0have always been an evasive quarry for me. In some urban areas, especially near feeders, they can be relatively easy to photograph but I prefer to catch them in natural habitat and in those areas I find them to be very difficult to approach.<\/p>\n Yesterday morning I spent considerable time looking for them in the west desert and found a few in Ophir Canyon\u00a0but this jay was the only one that gave me a reasonable chance and I almost missed it anyway. While perched it was too small in the frame but I got lucky and caught it\u00a0soon after\u00a0takeoff with a nice wing position and those open\u00a0wings helped to fill the frame. I do wish the underside of the tail wasn’t so deeply shaded but this canyon doesn’t get\u00a0much light until the sun is higher in the sky – thus the shaded ventral parts.<\/p>\n Blue on blue may not appeal to everyone but it works for me, especially since the green\u00a0junipers help to soften the\u00a0blow and frame the bird. The\u00a0jay is centered so I could include more of the juniper on the right.<\/p>\n Otherwise there was just too much blue for me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note: When I originally published this post early this morning I’d forgotten that last year the name of this species was changed from Western Scrub Jay to Woodhouse’s\u00a0Scrub Jay. I’ve now edited the post to correct my error. Thanks to Mark Amershek for bringing it to my attention.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blue on blue.<\/p>\n