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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I go almost weekly to the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine, CA this was taken next to one of the roads near the marsh ponds. There were a couple of Roadrunners coming down the road.Time
I took this midday about 10am. I had seen a baby Roadrunner there before and noticed two roadrunners both male and female coming down the road.Lighting
Normally midday lighting isn't that good however still being a bit overcast so the reflection off the road allowed the brilliant colors of the Roadrunner around the eye to stand out without any heavy shadows. I really liked it and cropped the image closer as I wanted to definitely accentuate those beautiful colors around the eye.Equipment
I just started doing digital photography about a year and a half ago (other than my cell phone... After using analog film and running a portrait studio for 15 years. The camera of choice I have is a Canon Eos Rebel T7. Most of the time I am using my 75-300mm lens. I generally keep it at 100-400 speed that time of day. The color saturation is best at the lower ISO. For the flying pictures of birds I am at least at 400 Iso and oftentimes late in the day I'll switch to 1600 to catch the birds in flight. I very rarely use anything but the longer lens as I like the optical blend you get in the background on portraits or certain closer objects. But, its not about the camera, it's how its used.Inspiration
I'd seen another roadrunner there and when I saw the roadrunner on the road it seemed to trust me long enough for me to stay there and get a few shots. Roadrunners are very skittish. I just took many and realized after I cropped closer that the roadrunners have those beautiful colors on the eyes. I love photographing birds of different species.Editing
Yes, after I saw it enlarged in the computer I cropped out the other bird in the photograph and cropped in to show the face, the colors in the eye, the texture of the feathers, and most of all the intensity of the look. i adjusted the colors to fine tune the color intensityIn my camera bag
Canon EOS Rebel T7, 50mm lens, 75-300mm lens. lens cleaners, extra memory chip, battery charger, computer can be brought in my bag but when shooting don't normally take it unless I am doing an in home portrait.Feedback
Be calm, birds freak out when your jumpy. Don't try to be sneaky, they are very smart. Make sure when using a long lens to take the background into perspective. The background blending of colors similar to the object of interests colors, can allow the focus to be directed at the subject/object of interest drawing the eye in. Think of it two ways as a black drop on a white board...or a white dot on a black board. when you look at both the smallest opposite draws your eye there. If you can create that in a portrait or picture you win!