First, I want to thank you for voting for me in the People’s Choice Award in National Wildlife Federation‘s annual photo contest. I appreciate all the help. Voting will continue until July 14. Just click on the above link.
It is strange that it would be June 1st before I would see my first American Robin of the year. But that is what happened. We were driving through Spring Creek Park this morning when we came upon three of them.
American Robin
- Canon 7D
- Canon 100-400mm lens
- 1/500 sec @ f10 plus 1/3 EV
- ISO 3200
- Lens focal distance 400mm
- Shutter priority
- Partial metering
Here are a couple more images from a recent outing.
Painted Bunting - female
- Canon 7D
- Canon 500mm IS lens
- Manfrotto tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head
- 1/1600 sec @ f4 plus 1/3 EV
- ISO 2500
- Lens focal distance 500mm
- Shutter priority
- Partial metering
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
- Canon 7D
- Canon 500mm IS lens with 1.4 tele-converter
- Manfrotto tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head
- 1/2500 sec @ f5.6 minus 1/3 EV
- ISO 2000
- Lens focal distance 700mm
- Shutter priority
- Partial metering
I hope you enjoyed these photographs. Click on any of them to see an enlargement.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 
I also want to thank you again for sharing your settings. I’m finding it very educational. This is a wonderful set. The second one has my heart – the light is so wonderfully soft. Interesting that you should just now be seeing the robin. My reading seems to suggest that they might be year-round residents there.
I’m glad you find my EXIF data a help. I will continue to add that. Actually, there are more robins here, but not in the huge numbers that you will find elsewhere. I have been just been unfortunate not to see before now. I need to get out more. 🙂
I always enjoy seeing your work, Bob! Thank you again for posting your EXIF data, it helps tremendously to see what kind of settings are used for different circumstances! Robins are usually the first birds I see every Spring, they’re so common around here, but you captured it beautifully – and the other two you have here are very striking, the woodpecker looks more like a painted one, with the yellow and red patches!
Thanks, Holly. I had several people asking for the EXIF data, so I thought it would be a good idea, if I can help people understand how I create my images. Thanks again for writing. 🙂
Love the Gold Fronted Woodpecker. I voted too. Hope you get lots of votes..your photos are so great…
Thanks, Syl. Those Golden-fronted Woodpeckers are so photo-genic. It’s hard to resist aiming a camera at them. 🙂
Thanks for the votes.
Some fabulous photos again Bob, but what else would I expect. I tried to vote for you, but they don’t exactly make it easy. I’ll try again. . . I saw your little Killdeer chick photos. They’re adorable. Wish mine had turned out better. The background was so light that it’s difficult to see detail in my photos of them.
Thanks so much, Linda. I’m sorry that you had problems voting. I hope it gets corrected for you. Thanks for checking out my Killdeer chick photos. I had forgotten that I had them in my albums. 🙂
Note to Linda. Maybe you clicked on National Wildlife Federation instead of People’s Choice Award. Click on the latter for best results. 🙂
Bob…I continue to marvel at the amazing things you capture on “film”. Thanks to the internet, your work will inspire millions of others to gain an interest in photography and birding. You have a legacy that will last forever for new generations to enjoy. As your friend, I thank you for your contributions to a beautiful thing like birding and the photos that bring your work to life. Pretty good for a Funky Old Dude 🙂
Toby, I don’t know what to say. You sure know how to make a “funky old dude” feel good. Thank you again for all of those kind words. I hope I can live up to them.