Birds in Nature - images of wild birds by Richard Ditch

Subject: Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre)
Place: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Date: June 2001
Equipment: Nikon N90S, Nikkor AF-S 300/2.8, TC20E (600/5.6), tripod
Film: Fujichrome Provia 100 F
Exposure: aperture priority matrix metered, natural light, no fill flash
Scan: Minolta Dimage, 95% of original frame

Commentary: One of our most common backyard birds. As with almost all of these shots, I've taken this from inside the house through the closed glass patio door. The framing is much tighter than I like in this. I was taking photos of Cactus Wrens when this larger thrasher came in. When it fluffed out its feathers I had no time to back off. I was even forced to take the slide out of the mount before scanning to get the tip of the tail in the scan. The cropping was a small part off the right edge so the bright green didn't dominate as much - the other three sides are effectively the edge of the image area. Since my scanner always twists the film holder slightly, I've had to clone a little bit along the bottom edge to keep the tail tip in the image.