Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

Another great week with two of my pictures among the 25 that Steve Boyes of Wild Bird Trust has to show at National Geographic’s site. The two pictures are both taken during my photo workshop in Hungary in June.

The first picture is of the Syrian Woodpecker that I used the Hawfinch hide to take photos of. It is very similar to the Great Spotted Woodpecker here in Sweden but it lacks the black stripe from the head to the neck.

It is a good photo with a very soft black and green background. It gives a nice contrast to the Woodpecker and makes it come out of the picture. I think this is a really good portrait of a wild bird. It is really crisp with a good sharpness over the side of the bird that then fades away due to the big aperture that I used. I really like this picture and I hope you do it also.

The second picture was taken just a couple of days before when I tried the Tower hide. It was really nice to be up in the air taking photo at the same level as the Common Kestrel had its nesting box. To my fortune the eggs had hatched so the male was bringing food back to the female and the chicks at a hurried pace.

The photo shows an adult bird sitting on a resting branch calling.

This picture has harder light and the background is more of a mess. Still it’s a more than okay background, but it’s not as good as the Woodpecker background. You can also see how wind it was by looking at the feathers on the head and neck. I seem that there’s room for improvement in this picture, but I still think that the exposure was correct it was just the light that was a little too hard for my liking.

I think that both photos are good, but I rate the Woodpecker picture a little more than the Kestrel picture.

You can see the 25 pictures at National Geographic’s News Watch.