Bird's-eye view
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), Bainbridge, Ohio, December 17, 2009, 10:01 am, by Randall Branham
Published: February 19, 2010
 Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) by Randall Branham
Eager to attract birds that would make good portraits, Branham had turned the area into an “outdoor studio.” First, he piled pieces of wood onto an elevated platform, onto which he added a fair amount of woodpecker-tempting food and one interesting-looking hollow log. Then he retreated to the warmth and quiet of his home office, about 12 feet away, and waited.
Using the office as his blind, he set his camera as close to the window as possible and positioned it so that he could shoot through the hollow log. When the woodpecker showed up, Branham was rewarded for his preparations with the fresh view shown above. His focus was on the bird’s head.
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Equipment used
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR
Monopod: Slik Pro Pod 381 CF with a ball-and-cup head of his own design (monopod was resting on a box)
Settings: ISO 800, 1/350, f/4, aperture priority, center-weighted metering mode, auto exposure
Focus mode: manual focus, automatic white balance
Light: Partly cloudy, no flash, through window
Format: JPEG Fine (L)
Adjustments: Cropped 12.5%. Removed noise using Photoshop CS2 with Imagenomic. |
Meet the photographer
MOUNTAIN MAN: Forum member Randall Branham holds his Nikon D2X with an attached ball-and-cup fulcrum for his monopod. Retired from his own real estate business and mill-work and woodworking company, Randall and his wife live just outside Bainbridge, Ohio, south of Columbus, in a cabin they built on a mountain to be closer to the wildlife they love.
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