O man I love these birds, never had a change to take one myself , they were spotted last year close to were I'm living but I was to late to see them...
They just stopped for a little while feeding on the red berries in the local park and after that they were gone...Well I hope one day they come in front of my lens also...

Just one little thing:
I don't like it the yellow fruit in the left hand corner , it's an eye catcher that distract to much ...clone or crop it out and you have a perfect picture ....just my opinion of course...

Over all I would say Perfect , well done and I'm a little jealous....ha ha

Best regards,

Leon,

Wonderful shot, agree with Fons's commnets, it's almost perfect for me . I can see a small amount of noise, have you tried Neat Image to remove it?

Keep up the good work. Kindest regards: Peter

Beautiful colors and i like the way the feathers are sharpen.
Don?t understand why you used "spot" , i think is a bit risky when shooting wildlife, there are always something more brighten than
the principal suject.I preefer iesp mode.
Regards;Manuel

G'Day Fons:

Thanks once again for the kind words of encouragement and critique.

Honestly, this was the first time I've ever been up close and personal with this species. I never knew just how gorgeous a bird they are. Their colors aren't striking like many tropical birds; just the same they are sublime. Mother Nature provided me with a wonderful gift this past Sunday afternoon and I tried to make the most of it. It was somewhat mysterious the way they seem to have come from nowhere and then vanished in an instant.

It was just a coincidence that I happened to look out the kitchen window when I did - and there they all were stuffing themselves with fruit. I saw them, went and grabbed my camera, cracked open that back door, eased out the lens and began shooting away - slowly at first, and for the next 15 minutes or so they just flitted around the tree, munching away.

Aesthetically, you are absolutely correct; the yellow fruit (loquat - also known as Japanese Plum) is distracting; however, to my way of looking at the scene it's a vital portion, not unlike another photo I posted of the osprey and the fish it had just captured, or yet another photo I posted of the alligator and the fish it had just captured.

For a beautiful portrait of a cedar wax wing, you're right, the loquat (or any other distractions) would have to go. On the other hand, to portray the cedar wax wing and its relationship with its natural surroundings it seemed appropriate to include it. I just wish it had been a bit brighter; that way I could have used a tighter aperture (say ~f-8) and the loquat would have been in focus.

Ciao!

G'Day Peter:

Please read my reply to Fons (regarding the 'distracting' fruit).

A 'small amount' of noise? You are being far too kind! There's a bunch of noise, I'm sorry to say, but circumstances dictated that I use a high ISO that afternoon. And, unfortunately, I do not currently have any software that will silence the digital noise. Actually, maybe I do. I have Adobe Elements 2.0, but I'm not familiar with its capabilities or how to operate it (not yet anyway).

Speaking of noise, do you (or anyone else out there!) have any experience using the 'noise filter' feature that's on the E-1? I understand that using this operational option slows down the writing speed but I'm not sure how much slower, and I'm not clear on how effective it is. If it is effective and doesn't slow things down too much I may begin using it for the time being.

Ciao!

G'Day Manuel:

Thanks so much for viewing this photo and taking the time to comment. Yes; the colors of these birds are wonderful; they're not at all 'flashy' but there is a richness and warmth to them that makes me feel good all over just looking at them. As for the feathers, there is a certain texture about them that is equally attracting as the colors. It's hard to describe but personally, I feel it and it feels good.

As for the focusing mode, that's my best guess. I'd been experimenting with numerous settings earlier in the day and one of the focus modes had been 'spot'. Generally speaking I use the auto-focus and manual focus feature, and once the lens auto-focuses I fine tune it manually - whether I'm using 'spot' or 'i-ESP' etc.

Ciao!