![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/red-winged-blackbird-0371-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt certainly doesn’t look like it but this is actually an action shot.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 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 I took this photo of a female Red-winged Blackbird perched on a phrag plume a little over two weeks ago at Bear River MBR. Even though it was a pretty cold morning she appears to have recently bathed so she’s fluffed up, still wet and I think her wetness makes her appear a little darker than usual. I like the simplicity of the photo with it’s good sharpness and detail.<\/p>\n Some, though not all, adult females of this species sport a pinkish orange throat and she’s one of them so I also like the way hers is color coordinated with the perch and even the background.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m sure this looks like an easy photo to take but getting it really challenged my skills. The wind was blowing and that phrag plume acted like a sail on the end of long, thin and flexible mast so she was dancing all over the place. As she did so she was going in and out of frame and in and out of focus and other vegetation kept appearing and disappearing in front of her and behind her – sometimes partially blocking her and other times changing the foreground and\/or background.<\/p>\n I had two choices of technique to try to keep her in frame and in focus and get a background and setting I liked, neither of them even close to foolproof:<\/p>\n In case you hadn’t noticed there’s an entire boatload of unpredictable variables here.<\/p>\n In the end I tried both techniques but with this shot that I liked best I’d used the second one. Nature photographers in particular often have to be creative in the field to find something that works, or can<\/em> work, and thinking of it is often part of the problem. So I thought I’d share what worked for me that morning with other bird photographers who follow my blog.<\/p>\n For those readers who have little or no interest in photo technique, my apologies. But without technique that works, good photos don’t happen.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It certainly doesn’t look like it but this is actually an action shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n