Female House Sparrow

Posted by Penney Goodwin on Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:33 pm

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French Street ( F ) House Sparrow ( Streetus Statuarius)

Montreal, Quebec
(S)he stood on a statue just staring for a moment until (S)he saw there was no food. I was quite taken with the large beak and "bad" body feather cut. Doesn't it look as if her feathers were chopped here and there? I suppose the extra warmth serves her well there.
Terrific if you can better identify her!
All comments and reposts welcomed.
D 100 with Nikkor 80-400 @400
1/1000 sec - f/5.6
ISO 320
other settings, auto
40% crop, handheld
PS7, USM, sat, clarity

Penney
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Last edited by Penney Goodwin on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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by Ken Newcombe on Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:45 pm

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Laurel,

A nice closeup with a clean BG. Flash may lighten the breast and provide an eye hi light. A bit more DOF would sharpen the feet.

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by Bill Whala on Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:53 pm

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Wow!! What an In-Your-Face shot this is.

I feel like I should strike up a conversation with this guy.

Excellent detail. f8 would have helped to bring the feet into better focus but I know how it is when you have to act fast.

Cool shot.

Bill Whala

"Aves of similar plumage tend to converge with one another"

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by Alan Murphy on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:10 pm

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Laurel, I'm first impressed with how low of an angle you got on a Sparrow (female house Sparrow). She looks like she's ready to take you on.

Cool shot.

Alan Murphy
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by Penney Goodwin on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:27 pm

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Actually, Alan, she stood on the base of a (very large) statue, so I was not crawling.

She was on the square and likely tame and well fed from visitor's crumbs. Ok. here I go: How do you know she's a she???

Penney
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by E.J. Peiker on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:33 pm

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LOL - she looks to have some attitude - a fun shot!

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by AlexC on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:41 pm

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The last thing you want to see if you are an earth crawling bug!!!
Wonderful capture is spite of the shallow DOF, Very nice!!!
Congrats!!!

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by Greg Downing on Sat Oct 18, 2003 9:42 pm

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Very cute and unique. I like the low angle and the head on look. I see a little noise in the image.

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by Penney Goodwin on Sat Oct 18, 2003 10:00 pm

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Thank you, Greg. I don't really know yet what to do about noise.

Penney
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by Chip Estabrooks on Sat Oct 18, 2003 10:14 pm

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Would work cropped as a portrait if the grain didn't get worse.
I'm with EJ..fun shot.
Chip

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by Anthony Medici on Sat Oct 18, 2003 11:20 pm

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Think "stop down" when you get close with that much focal length. F8, F11 or even higher if you can get away with it. The amount of the bird in focus improves greatly. I like the pose and the look. Are you shooting this RAW or jpeg because there's some noise in the background that I'm surprised is there on the D100?

Tony

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by LHays on Sun Oct 19, 2003 4:43 am

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Laurel
Well this little one certainly is in your face....looks like a stare down to me. I'm more inclined to shoot with too much DOF than not enough. There are noise reduction programs out there that can help. Start shooting RAW if you haven't yet....it may seem a pain in the beginning but it will help considerably. You're doing great....keep at it.

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by Penney Goodwin on Sun Oct 19, 2003 4:59 am

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Thank you Tony...I depend too much on my auto settings and don't play enough with manual to see what I can do -I need a cheat sheet - many times, at a given opportunity, I cannot remember the combo of buttons and dials ( as you know, this camera is big on "combos

) that will give me the shot. I end up relying on auto, so as not to miss the shot. I really need to work with someone who knows this camera inside out! The birdies just aren't that patient about the manual page turning.

Penney
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by ajhand on Sun Oct 19, 2003 8:14 am

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Laurel:

I have sent you an email on solving the noise problem, with a sample attached. I am warning you so you won't delete it as spam.

aj

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by Bruce DiVaccaro on Sun Oct 19, 2003 9:59 am

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Laurel,

The angle from which you photographed this and the detail on the bird are very nice. Getting rid of some of the noise would improve the shot.

Bruce DiVaccaro
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by Chris Valentine on Sun Oct 19, 2003 1:12 pm

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As others have mentioned the grain does take something away from this image. I still like it very much. The eye level viewpoint and detail is great!

Chris Valentine
Liberty, MO

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by Harvey Edelman on Mon Oct 20, 2003 7:00 am

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Well done Laurel!

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by LindaY on Mon Oct 20, 2003 7:56 pm

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It sounds like you have already been given some good advice. I like this head on, in-your-face pose. Looks like she is ready to take on the world...even if it was a "bad feather" day.

Nice one!