I’ve been crazily busy here, sawing two trees that fell, sawing branches that fell, hedging long correa hedges, clearing drains and attacking a veritable army of weeds. So today I decided to rest awhile, take my camera into the winter chill and watch the birds that visited the weeping apricot. This beautiful little tree blossoms every winter but I rarely get the chance to photograph its loveliness.
1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 1600
Canon R5, Canon RF 600 f/4 L IS USM
Most of the time the Silvereyes were hidden among the weeping branches, shadowed by the blossoms. Half of the time they had their backs to me. Once in a while one would venture onto a branchlet at the edge of the tree. Often the sun was hidden behind clouds. And the longer I sat without working the colder I became until I was pretty concerned that my fingers wouldn’t be able to keep changing the settings as quickly as I needed them to. It was quite wonderful when everything came together for this shot. I love the colours, the pose, the details and the way the stamens stand out so clearly.
Silvereyes are tiny birds measuring about 11cm and weighing about 11g. They are omnivorous though I rarely see them foraging for anything other than fruit and nectar.
Settings explained: This is a new segment that I might include in some posts. I shoot fully manual as this gives the best chance to adapt my shutter speed and depth of field in circumstances that can change rapidly. These changes can include lighting, activity and species. In this case I closed the aperture more than usual as I wanted to ensure a wider depth of field to allow the blossoms as well as the bird to be in focus. It was a delicate balance as if I closed it too much I’d risk losing the blur I wanted for the background. The Silvereye was moving rapidly from blossom to blossom so 1/1250 was a good shutter speed enabling me to capture the bird while keeping the ISO at 1600.
Happy birding, Kim
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