Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Female Northern Cardinal

Today I spent a few hours sitting quietly within a few feet of our bird feeding area. At times the activity was frantic.

For today’s post I chose to share with you a series of Female Northern Cardinals. Although not as brightly colored as the males I find the female’s subdued colors to be very beautiful.









It has been my experience that the muted colors of the female are much easier to properly expose than that of the male. I find when photographing males my ratio of rejects are much higher because of the difficulty in obtaining good feather detail.

I hope you all enjoy this series. I’ll be sharing more of today’s shoot later but for now I ask you to pick your favorite and drop a quick comment. Let's see which girl wins the beauty contest :)




11 comments:

  1. To my eye the third picture is the best.I like the pose ,the setting,and all.Having said that,it is difficult to choose a favorite when all the pictures are this good.
    Blessings,Ruth

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  2. I also like the third photo the best.

    Shane and I are heading to SNP Monday and Tuesday. Give us a chance to see some bucks in the snow before they start dropping their antlers. Maybe you guys should join us.

    Merry Christmas.

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  3. I like the third photo best (though it was hard to choose!)

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  4. I have to go with #1. The lines of the twigs draws interest! Also the contrasting colors!

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  5. I actually choose the middle one! The lighting, the colors . . . They are all terrific, however. Wish the Cardinals would show up in our area, but we don't get them here - except for one time in June of 2007 after a big hail storm blew through here. A female showed up on our birdbath for one day - then was gone.

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  6. The female Cardinal is ever bit as beautiful as the male with his bright colors, in my opinion.

    I also prefer the third photo, but they are all spectacular!

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  7. My vote is #1...but I think is has more to do with photo clarity than the beauty of the little girl herself. They are all real beauties. Happy Holidays to you and Mrs. Salty/Coy

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  8. I chose #1 but my husband picked #3... we never agree! I wasted a good couple hours yesterday trying to photograph 3 male cardinals (we have 3 males and 3 females that spend most of their day in our backyard) but had the same contrast problem. I love the way the ladies look anyway, but thought it would have made a great picture to get all 3 males together.

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  9. #2 is the best all-around image. Less distraction around the bird and more pleasing composition.

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  10. Oh, Coy. These are absolutely stunning! I love the female cardinals' coloring (even more than the males) and you have captured her beautifully!

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  11. Thank you all for your comments. It looks like #3 wins the competition! I can tell you now that #1 was my favorite.

    This is what makes entering photo contest so darn difficult. Who can ever guess beyond the technical aspects of the image what the judges will be looking for.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the visits and comments as long as the comments are respectful of others views and contain no profanity.

Thanks again
Coy