Gray Jay on a grey day

GeorgianBayBoy · Oct 29, 2015

A Gray Jay intently watching me for treats. These wild birds will fly down and take food right from your hand. A cousin of the Blue Jay. C & C please.

dannylightning · Oct 29, 2015

the eye and head are not quite sharp, always try to focus on the head or eyes if possible.. looks like the focus was on its belly or the tree branch. using single point focus ( if you were not already ) is almost a must for me when shooting birds in trees or when lots of stuff is in the background/foreground. i often get missed focus if i use one of the auto focus modes for that kind of shot, for flying birds the 51 point auto focus is great but i have missed a few good shots using that for things setting in trees or on the ground.

part of the tail is cut off, not a biggie, if you can re-corp it to get that little bit of missing tail in there i would, if it was just not in the photo in the first place i would not worry about it. that is just me being super picky..

cool bird and nice shot over all, i have never saw one of those, we get chickadees, tit mice and sometimes cardinals to eat from your hand around here and thats about it so far.

GeorgianBayBoy · Oct 30, 2015

Thanks Danny, now that I look at it, it's quite obvious. Will have to use spot focus much more than I do. Cheers.

squirl033 · Oct 31, 2015

they are brazen little beasties, aren't they? i agree with Danny... looks like the AF grabbed the needles right in front of his feet... with the 7D, you only have 19 AF points, and the center point is the best choice by far for this kind of shot. next best choice is the "expanded center point" mode, that gives you a bit more leeway, but still keeps the focus fairly narrow on your chosen subject. that said, i've shot gray jays (AKA "camp robbers" in this part of the world), and they do flit around a bit, so you don't always have time to set the tripod and get the AF locked on just the right spot... a nice composition, though, with a good pose...