Roosting Cardinal

Taceas · Feb 14, 2007

I'm not sure if everyone else has problems photographing these beauties, but here locally they are THE most skittish bird in my yard. The moment they spy me in the window, *woosh* and they're gone, leaving me with sparrows and finches.

I took this tonight after a snow where he was roosting in a spruce. I've known about this roosting spot for a month or more, but until tonight its had a finch roosting there at night. When I looked tonight after the snow had ended I was pleasantly surprised to see a male Cardinal.

C&C welcomed!

LaFoto · Feb 14, 2007

Somehow, and I really don't know how, Raymond even manages to capture these, but then he is our absolute expert on bird photography (along with Airic and two or three others whose names are escaping me at the moment) ... so if you want to check out their pics, you might see this bird - which I have never ever seen at all with my own eyes, only in photos, such as this one on here. (Member's List and Member's Search should help).

You did quite well here ... I only ever once in all my life saw (and tried to photograph) a kingfisher and my photo came out a TOTAL BLOOPER!!!

Taceas · Feb 14, 2007

I've got several other Cardinal shots, but they're nowhere near the quality and crispness I am striving for in my photography.

This one won a local photo contest last year:

Another:

Taken with the new D80 (which I'm still going through that "I'm the worst photographer ever!" phase:

Linked due to size:
http://www.sleepyhollowherps.com/misc/WildBirds/WildBirdsJ.JPG

I am just really bummed that I can't get that same level of quality I've seen displayed on here, and I've been trying for years. Granted I just got the D80 a couple of weeks ago, but still in all. It's flat out depressing. =(

LaFoto · Feb 14, 2007

Taceas said:
It's flat out depressing. =(

Awww :hug:: ... you did not post process these last ones much, did you?
There is yet more in them than meets the eye just now!!! I am SURE!

Taceas · Feb 14, 2007

No, most of them are untouched. I have Photoshop CS2 but I have no freaking idea how to utilize it to get the most out of my pictures.

I know most people do a lot of post-processing and come out with absolutely gorgeous pictures, and I have tried but the more I mess the worse the pictures come out looking 90% of the time. So I just really stopped trying.

The most I've done is adjusting the exposure to what was true to what I saw and maybe sharpening it a bit, not much else.

Toast95135 · Feb 14, 2007

I did a little post processing on the last picture

, I don't have photoshop though so I had to use other programs.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/zguy95135/photo forum/WildBirdsJcopyweb3.jpg

(its hard to get the vibrant reds to show up on the web, unfortunately).

perylousdemon · Feb 14, 2007

I actually really like this picture. Cardinals are just so horribly skittish compared to other birds. The red and green really complement each other in this shot. Nice job.