Back to the "Chickadee Challenge"!

This afternoon just after lunch I sat in the photoblind for about an hour and a half. Earlier in the day I created a set up with a perch and a small feeder behind which I put up a fall covered background. Luckily for me the day was overcast with soft filtered light. There weren't a lot of birds coming in at that time of day but there were enough to keep me on my toes. I would get drowsy and then a bird would show up and bring me back to being alert. You probably know what it's like to sit down in a cozy chair after lunch right. Around one thirty or so the wind started kicking up from the incoming storm and I called it quits. After uploading the images to my computer I spotted four images that I really liked. After processing them this little Chestnut Backed Chickadee was my favorite. It was the perfect example of what you can accomplish without using a giant telephoto lens to photograph small birds which is what the Chickadee Challenge is all about. The challenge has its origins from when some years ago an art buyer stated that the reason why I took so many great pictures of birds was because of the big lens I had. While I will admit having a large telephoto helps it's akin to telling a painter the reason they have such beautiful paintings is because the brushes they use. To make a point and to challenge myself I grabbed an old 50mm lens and an older still Canon Rebel DSLR and photographed a chickadee in my backyard. So the "Chickadee Challenge" was born. Create an image of a small sparrow sized bird and post an uncropped image of it. Today I repeated the challenge in my front yard with a Canon 7D MkII and a Canon 50mm F 1.8 lens. The camera settings use were AV mode, ISO 800,F 8.0 at 1/160th of a sec. A Canon 550EX set to - 1 1/3rd stops was used for fill flash. #teamcanonusa, #teamcanonGod's love and blessings to all, chris