Hi Everyone,

Wishing the best to all of you and yours. Taken with the K10D + FA* 250-600/5.6.

Just click on the image to load the larger one in a new window/tab:



















Safe travels for you and your family members!!

Regards,
Marc

[vievetrick]

Wow stunning!!! Merry Christmas as well

[Frogfish]

Superb shots Marc - as always !

Is this the 250-600 that you are putting up for sale in the New Year ?

[xs400]

Great captures, very sharp. Well done.

[Bob Harris]

Beautiful photography, thanks for sharing with us. Bob

[Marc Langille]

Wow stunning!!! Merry Christmas as well

Thank you Pat and take care.

Regards,
Marc

[Sparkle]

The last three are definitely underexposed. Can be fixed in PP.

[frank]

Beautiful photos!

Merry Christmas to all

[slowpez]

Merry Christmas Marc. As always, beautiful birds. Love the cardinals. They seem to scream Christmas this time of year.

[eaglem]

Very crisp and very sharp. Colours are great as is the lighting. Excellent shots.

[Hendrik.H]

Tja had ik ook maar zo,n lens in mijn bezit dan was ik voorlopig niet thuis :-))
mooie foto,s en voor mij nog een droom
groet Hendrik.H

[Marc Langille]

Superb shots Marc - as always !

Is this the 250-600 that you are putting up for sale in the New Year ?

Thank you very much for the comments. Are you looking to buy??

<just kidding - mine's not for sale>

Great captures, very sharp. Well done.

Thank you Frank and hope you are doing well. Take care!

Regards,
Marc

[Marc Langille]

Beautiful photography, thanks for sharing with us. Bob

Hi Bob, thank you and my pleasure to share the beauty of nature. Things we'd never see with the naked eye is what makes it so compelling for me to capture it.

Cheers,
Marc

[Marc Langille]

The last three are definitely underexposed. Can be fixed in PP.

Hi Sparkle, thanks for the comments.

I was unsure why you stated the above without any explanation, since those images in question you reference are properly exposed. My backyard is heavily forested and often there are significant amounts of dynamic range in my images. The shadows from the directional light in those images are indeed accurate.

Here's my rationale for the images in question:

1. the female cardinal was photographed in a shaded area - just a small break in the clouds allowed for the lighting/timing on that shot.
2. note the sun reflecting in her eye - it's just above the horizon line as it sets. It was 40 minutes to sunset and the area is heavily shadowed - as was the subject - until the short break in the clouds when I took the shot. Perhaps a 5-10 minute window with that lighting. I globally boosted the exposure a bit for the female, nothing more, so it's an accurate representation of what I saw through the lens. The light and colors are very subtle, I can assure you.
3. the male's plumage detail would blow out if I did as you suggest. I know this because I did it out of curiosity while viewing the image in Photoshop (I shoot RAW). IIRC, the color/exposure that you see in the image is a straight conversion from ACR on default settings and the most I did was pull up some detail from the shadows.

Image EXIF:
Female Northern Cardinal

Male Northern Cardinal

In fact, several people (not here) asked how I was able to expose the reds properly. That doesn't justify my statements: it's simply pointing out a consensus. As you know, overexposure of reds can sometimes create a magenta cast. Most important: the red feather details on it's breast would definitely be lost if exposure was boosted.

BTW, are you from the Maritimes? I saw your gallery of images and was curious since I spent part of my childhood in NS. Several family members were born in NS or NFLD.

Best,
Marc

[Scottnorwo]

what beautiful shots