Over Easter Weekend I was visiting family in Northeastern NC. I had my mornings free to venture out and look for photography subjects. On Sunday morning I had a few hours before Church to go out and wander. With a short window, I decided to drive up the road to Bennett's Mill Pond. Â
I spent a portion of my childhood canoeing through Bennett's Cypress trees searching for Largemouth Bass, Crappie and Flier, while dodging the occasional Cottonmouth. Bennett's is still somewhat of a hidden gem in North Carolina, explored mostly by kayakers and birders. Since I've gotten into bird photography the last few years, I've realized that it's a great place to find Spring migratory Warblers such as Prothonotary, Northern Parula and Yellow Throated Warblers.
When I arrived, I started listening for birds as I walked among the trees. Not long after, I came across this particularly photogenic Prothonotary Warbler.
The above image is the RAW file straight from my camera. Â
Camera Body:Â Sony A7IV
Lens:Â Sony 200-600 f/5.6-6.3
Mode:Â Manual with Auto ISO
Focal Length:Â 600mm
Aperture:Â f/6.3
Shutter Speed:Â 1/1600 sec
ISO: 6400
I spent several minutes photographing this Prothonotary as he bounced from Cypress to Cypress on the hunt for insects. Warblers sometimes feed on seeds, but they have a preference for both crawling and flying insects, especially during breeding season. Along with photographing this bird in different positions and on different backgrounds, I was also able to capture him eating three different insects...two Dragonflies and a Crane Fly. Â
When I saw him grab this particular Dragonfly, I held down the shutter and fired off multiple shots. Even though my camera records about 10 frames per second, every single frame showed a different positioning of the bird and its breakfast, as he quickly beat the Dragonfly into submission and swallowed it whole. I chose the above image as I felt it had the most pleasing position of both subjects.
I capture both good and bad images when out photographing wildlife, but I never capture a perfect image. There are always improvements that can be made in post processing. I always photograph in RAW, as it gives me the most latitude to make adjustments. Â
Since the action was fast paced, I wasn't too concerned with composition, I just wanted to capture the action. I shot the image a little wide, knowing that I could crop it slightly into a more pleasing composition later. The image above is how I chose to crop the image. I zoomed in a bit, but still gave the bird plenty of room to "fly" into by leaving an open area in front of him. I also felt that the space above him was more interesting than the space below, so I cropped him into the lower third of the frame. Overall, I believe this composition is more pleasing to the eye, and that the tree branches form a clockwise path to help lead the viewers eye back to the main subject.
Although RAW files record the most information for post processing, they come out looking dull and flat. I used Lightroom to make adjustments to the color temperature, highlights and shadows, and whites and blacks to bring the photo back to life. I masked the subject and the background separately to make localized tonal edits. I also went in with a few radial masks to dodge and burn certain areas of the photo. My intent with these edits was to help accentuate the image, while keeping it subtle enough that the viewer doesn't realize any edits have been done. Â
When I took the image, I shot it with a high ISO of 6400 to allow me enough shutter speed in the dim light to freeze the subject. This left me with a good bit of noise in the image. Fortunately, Topaz Denoise came to the rescue and helped clean up all the noise from the image.
Below is the final image after making a few quick edits. Thanks for taking the time to check it out.