Rob McKenzie

Common Loon (no.5)

2 posts in one day! This shot was taken a while back with most of the other loon shots. Again, not technically, or even compositionally perfect for a birding shot; however, I don’t really care.

Common Redpoll

Seeing as winter shows no signs of leaving the Canadian North, why not take advantage of it and take some photos.

I have been experimenting with flash lately and Jimi is our only pet who will sit for long enough and still be interested in the camera. I can shoot hundreds of frames with retina burning flash and he just sits patiently waiting for a treat.

Purple Finch (Female no.2)

Due to my lack of attention span I dislike spending too much time on post processing my photographs. My favourite shots are the ones I got right in-camera and spent approximately 5-10 minutes adjusting curves and sharpening in PhotoShop. This is one of those shots.

Jimi & Pixel

Cats and dogs can get along with no problems at all. Well, these two can anyway. Pixel likes to attack both dogs but only in a playful way. They give as good as they get!

Purple Finch (Male)

This shot is a little different to most of my bird shots. I usually like to get them in less dramatic light; however, this shot stood out to me as moving away from my “standard” bird shot. The shot itself is as close to straight out of camera as I get. I cropped a little from the original frame and worked with the curves tool. As always there is some selective sharpening done with a High Pass filter.

A Perching Pixel

I didn’t think the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” had any real meaning until we decided to adopt this little tornado. Her name is Pixel (aptly named for two photo geeks) and I truly believe that she has 900 lives, not the standard 9.

Purple Finch (Female)

Let’s get the improvements out the way first. Perch is pretty dull. It would have been ideal if the finch would look about 4 degrees down and towards me. I think that is it. Phew… the list is usually much longer than that. I think this shot might have hit most of the technical nails on the head. I am very happy with sharpness, DOF, colour, framing, and the fact this is my first shot of a Female Purple Finch.

American Goldfinch

This is the first shot I have taken of an American Goldfinch and actually been happy with it. They are so hard to set exposure for. I always seem to end up over exposing the yellow. Surprisingly I didn’t even have to exposure compensate in this shot. The light must have been good that day.

American Tree Sparrow

There is not much of a story to this image. I set up to take pictures of birds in my back yard, and this one happened to land in front of my lens. I managed to compose quick enough and take the shot before it flew off. I am very happy with the shot for its sharpness and colours; however, as always I am not as happy with the depth of field (DOF).