![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/american-goldfinch-5256-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-goldfinch-5256-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA colorful bird on an attractive natural perch in the mountains and a lucky takeoff shot.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 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 Yesterday morning in the mountains I nearly missed seeing this male American Goldfinch perched very close to the dirt road as I was about to drive slowly by. By the time I spotted him and stopped I was so close most birds would have already spooked but this handsome guy just stood his ground and looked at me. He didn’t give me much pose variety but I’ll gladly take that as a tradeoff to the more likely alternative of a vacated perch.<\/p>\n After taking many similar photos of him my next goal was a takeoff shot but chances of success were small, in part because\u00a0 I was so close. Timing the shot right, keeping him in frame and getting him sharp enough wouldn’t be easy. All I could do was try to guess his eventual angle of takeoff, compose him in the frame with extra room on the left, try to anticipate the timing of takeoff and hope my active focus point was up to the task..<\/p>\n I got lucky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 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 My timing was spot-on, he was well placed and large in the frame, I have great eye contact and a catch light, he’s plenty sharp enough where it matters and I really like his flight posture.<\/p>\n I like this photo very much but there’s a small but annoying fly in the ointment. Can you spot it before you read further?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There’s a speck of white debris at the very tip of his right wing. If the wing hadn’t been moving it would only appear as a tiny white dot but motion blur has transformed it into a short linear line and it’s bright white against much darker colors so once I spotted it I couldn’t unsee it. Every time I looked at the photo my eye went directly to that proverbial pea under the mattress.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So I got rid of the damn thing.<\/p>\n There, that’s better.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A colorful bird on an attractive natural perch in the mountains and a lucky takeoff shot.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/american-goldfinch-5293-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-goldfinch-5293-ron-dudley\\"")
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