Figure 1 – Dark eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), Sudbury, MA, April 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

All winter long I have been trying to get a decent photograph of a dark eyed junco (Junco hyemalis).  The problem with him is within his name.  His eye is so dark as to be often invisible, especially when he is photographed against the snow, where the contrast can be overwhelming.  Still this little sparrow is a very appealing little bird.  The males have this dramatic slate color to them, that is truly anything but drab.

On Sunday I continued experimenting with by big lens.  I have discovered it works a lot better when manually focused.  This actually proved not be as difficult as I thought.  I had positioned myself in a lawn chair in front of my feeder.  I had read that birds are not as wary of you when you are seated as opposed to standing.  Well so much for that theory.  Still this littel guy was gregarious enough to pose for a photograph.  The lack of snow enabled me to eliminate the need for overexposure, and remarkably the image of Figure 1 was taken hand-held. I used every post=processing trick that I know of to get the image to come out right, that is with a clearly visible eye.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens hand-held at 400 mm IS on, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/500th sec at f/10.0 with no exposure compensation and manual focus.