![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/wilsons-warbler-2018-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wilsons-warbler-2018-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThis black-capped rascal was one of the most exasperating birds I ever aimed my lens at.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, 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 Wilson’s Warbler is a species I rarely see so one year ago today in the mountains I worked hard at trying to get some decent photos of this presumed male as he gleaned insects from a fragrant sumac bush. Here we only see a portion of his distinctive black cap but it’s obviously there. In this shot I like his berry perch and the fact that he’s far enough away from the background leaves to put them out of focus so they don’t compete so much with the bird. That’s what bokeh<\/a> is all about.<\/p>\n I worked my butt off on this bird but he seemed to be deliberately uncooperative, almost like he was teasing me. I photographed him exclusively for over 18 minutes but out of 760 shots I got only a handful I like and none of them were excellent (this one has been cropped significantly). He never once came in very close and he was nearly always at least partially buried in the leaves.<\/p>\n Another problem was the light angle and he seemed to deliberately be using it to stymie my attempts at decent shots. He was strongly side-lit so he had to be turned at a perfect angle to the sun in order to get light on his entire body and a catch light in his eye. On those few occasions when I had good light on his body he always kept his head turned at an angle that wouldn’t quite provide a catch light. And when I did get light in his eye much of his body was shaded or blocked by leaves.<\/p>\n But for an instant when this shot was taken he screwed up and gave me reasonably good light on his body and<\/span> a catch light in his eye.<\/p>\n I’ll take it because it’s the best I got.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – Apologies to my blog subscribers. Last night while I was working on this post I once again clicked on the “Publish” button instead of the “Save Draft” button so emails with a link to the post went out to subscribers prematurely. At the time all I had in the post was the title, this photo and a single line of text so I had no choice but to disable the post. <\/em><\/p>\n I wish WordPress would make publishing a two step process so you had to click two buttons to get it done but until that happens I’ll probably continue to make the same mistake occasionally. It’s very easy to do. I suspect most subscribers knew it was a mistake when they received the email at such an unusual time of day for me.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This black-capped rascal was one of the most exasperating birds I ever aimed my lens at.<\/p>\n