Haven't posted in a while...

Mostly because I haven't really had the time to go out and shoot wildlife Work and life have been conspiring against me. It just seems easier to get out in the winter for me. Anyhow all of these images feature pretty crappy lighting Oh well, you do the best you can with what you have...

This first group were taken this spring at some local ponds - all of them in the middle of the day

Cob, Pen and Cygnet (Black Swans)

In your comments Ed, I think you are undervaluing your shots, these are really good.
The first shot is a beautiful shot of the family together. The pen will be to the right of the picture as she is smaller than the dad. But notice how they are looking at the cygnet in a caring fashion, this is a wonderful shot.
And a very cute shot of the cygnet in the second shot, razor sharp, good pose and detail, nice one.
Lovely colours on the tiny gosling in the water with a good catchlight.
The mute Swan has a good balance of the whites as I can't see any white that's blown out.
First view for me to see the red headed woodpecker, so a treat for me, this shot has managed a good pose on the bird.
The blue-Jay, is one with good focus, colour, detail and pose with a very good background blur, but with a slight bit of noise and a unusual pose by the Wren which normally has it's tail cocking up but the details are very good. Well Ed, you get my vote for an excellent series of a variety of shots that's beautifully taken, well done.

They are quite beautiful with the first one getting much of my attention for the pose(s), great exposure on blacks, colors, and cute factor. The Red Headed woodpecker, House Wren and Mute Swan also get a lot of my attention and in that order. Nice work!

Excellent shots. The last two are my favorite. Very well done indeed.

As usual, Tony gave a very good C&C. I love #1.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Tony, thank you for your very nice critique. I know I'm never satisfied.

No blown out highlights, but, IMO, the eyes are too dark, even with some post.

Yes, the RHW is a treat for me as well which is why I'm enamored of this less-than-sharp image (I do like the pose though). I grew up in the mid-west, but living in California, we don't have a number of the birds that I remember fondly from my youth. The Red-headed Woodpecker and the Blue Jay are just two of them.

FWIW, about the noise: The last 3 photos are all shot at ISO 800, so that would account for the noise. I'm very careful about not sharpening noise when I process my imges, especially in background blur areas. These last three are among the first images that I have processed with a new workflow including the beta of Adobe Lightroom. It definitely gives a different "look" to the developed images than RSP (which I had been using) does. This look will definitely take some getting adjusted to in the rest of my post, but I do like the workflow for the most part.

= Ed =

Welcome back Ed I agree with Tony, your shots are all nicely captured. Well done.

Nice shots...great look from the woodpecker..."hey! What are you doing?"

It's good to see you posting again Ed. Your last Grand Canyon photos are still as fresh as yesterday.
These are wonderful captures. Love those younglings, very cute. We have plenty of common blue jay here in texas but i have yet to get a photo of them as good as yours.
Great work!

Thanks again folks.

Just a quick edit to the last 3 photos shot at 800 ISO (about 2 minutes each) dealt with the noise without affecting the detail. I should have done this originally, but I'm lazy by nature BTW, I did NOT use a noise reduction program to do this. This stuff is easy when you have good background blur and not a lot of complex shapes in the foreground. Other cases are not as simple as these 3 were. I should have taken the time for the first 3. You can compare the results for those of you who, like me and Tony , pixel peep.

= Ed =

Welcome back! Nice set of images that you posted here. They all look great! The last three are my favorite with the Woody being my overall favorite. Nice job!

All looking good but that 1st one is stunning,hard to exposse for the blacks,well done.

Thanks Keith and Dimitri.

= Ed =

Several excellent shots, Ed. If I had to choose, I guess the cygnet is my favorite.