Mr and Mrs Wren

[Gordon]

Went out the other day to one of favourite spots and managed to capture these two love birds flitting around the rushes on the banks.

Red Backed Fairy Wren couple.

5DMK11 300 f 2.8 + 2x 1000@f5.6 ISO 320

Cropped around 50% and then adjusted in curves to bring out the light spot in the eye, having dark eyes and a jet black head I had problems capturing the eyes in the shot.




Mrs Red Backed Fairy Wren after the Divorce, she didn't even get the nest!!
5DMK11 300 f 2.8 + 2x 1600@f5.6 ISO 320

[Phoenix]

I can see you had some trialling conditions for the shot. Birds one behind the other, posing probably for just a moment and the colour contrast between the birds is huge. I love the peekaboo effect and the orange back on the male.

I wonder if f2.8 is too large a stop? Would f8 work better for this sort of shot? What were you doing for in camera light metering?

Really like the low down perspective of the cute singing wren.

[Gordon]

I can see you had some trialling conditions for the shot. Birds one behind the other, posing probably for just a moment and the colour contrast between the birds is huge. I love the peekaboo effect and the orange back on the male.

I wonder if f2.8 is too large a stop? Would f8 work better for this sort of shot? What were you doing for in camera light metering?

Really like the low down perspective of the cute singing wren.

I wasn't using f2.8 that was the lens stop. 300mm @ f2.8. I had a 2x converter on the 300mm and I was actually using f5.6 for the shot.

As you suggest I could have gone down another couple of stops and had a slower shutter speed.

[loose cannon]

Great captures considering the conditions. I've had huge problems trying to get a decent exposure on the black males, you really need perfect lighting conditions 'cos these little suckers are seriously black and getting correct exposure with a bright background is always going to be problematic.

Well done getting both male and female in the one frame!

[Gordon]

Thanks Mick for your encouraging words I managed to get a quick shot a few weeks ago, but had similar problems then to.

[avkomp]

the backlighting has most likely fooled your camera in the first.
without favourable light all you could have done was use your flash to bring up the main subject, (or exposed for the bird and had a hot background)
worth trying again with the light behind you I think