Songbirds
Birds of Prey
Grouse & Kin
Water Lovers
In Flight
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In the Field
Red-breasted Nuthatch with Seed. Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. January 7, 2006.
Like Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches are very common small songbirds found throughout most of North America. In fact, during the winter they're often found in mixed-species flocks with chickadees, woodpeckers and even creepers. Also like Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches don't spend much time sitting still and photographing them can definitely be a frustrating process.
When close-up, many common birds have striking patterns and detail in their plumage. This common little bird is no different - the slate blues of their back contrast beautifully with their orange breast and dark eye-line. To bring out the detail in this bird's plumage I used a fairly intricate lighting plan (check under the "Behind the Camera" tab if you're interested). In this case the dark background is NOT an artifact of my use of flashes, but is simply the natural background of heavy Douglas Fir trees that happened to be in the shade.
Behind the Camera
Red-breasted Nuthatch with Seed. Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. January 7, 2006.
Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 200.
Nikon D200 with Nikon 200-400 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens @ 380 mm (570 mm equivalent with digital conversion factor) supported on Gitzo 1348 carbon fibre tripod with Wimberley head. SB-800 main flash (master) equipped with Better Beamer extender mounted on Really Right Stuff flash bracket. Two SB-R200 wireless flash units positioned to side and behind subject to highlight plumage detail. VR turned to "On" and in "Normal" mode.
1/60s @ f11; no in-camera compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting; main flash and side light fill at -0.3 stops (i-TTL mode), back fill at -0.7 stops (i-TTL mode).
At the Computer
Red-breasted Nuthatch with Seed. Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. January 7, 2006.
Details to follow.
Conservation
Red-breasted Nuthatch with Seed. Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. January 7, 2006.
Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Wildsight.
Information to follow.