Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good..............

I was shooting some birds on the railing of our deck today. The light was dwindling to I was down to ISO 1600 and 1/160sec @ f/11 with the "Beast", 600mm f/4 ED IF AIS Nikkor, and the dof was still paper thin at that distance. This little Chickadee came into view and so I quickly focused and shot. It bolted a fraction of a second before the shutter opened. The result is below. I wish I had not cut off the very tips of its right wing, but oh well.

Or you could say i spent hours and took loads of shots to get this image just how i wanted it

I love those happy accidents. I got a kinda cool image of a crow taking off that way.

You could increase the canvas a little and then smooth out the wing some. I do that sometimes when my subject is on the edge.

STM said:

... I wish I had not cut off the very tips of its right wing, but oh well.

Click to expand...

Personally, I think the wingtips - just barely breaking the frame like they do - compliments the dynamic of the loose gravel on the opposite edge; both of which add a sense of urgency, movement and escape.

mikew said:

Or you could say i spent hours and took loads of shots to get this image just how i wanted it

Click to expand...

That's true!

I managed to fix the wing tip but now I have this annyoing banding problem in the background that I can't get rid of. Any attempts at blurring it in a separate layer just makes it more distinct.