On this particularly frigid February morning (wait...they've all been frigid lately!), a European Starling and several of his friends stopped in to enjoy a meal. I have seen Starlings before in the yard and have even taken a photograph or two, but they are not a common sight. On this occasion, there were five Starlings and they hung around for quite a while.
The snow-covered ground and a moderate sunny day provide for the high-key effect in the background. Spot-metering on the birds help to properly expose the bird, but does blow-out the background, so processing in Lightroom is mostly focussed on adjusting the highlights and white-levels.
The images were captured handheld using a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon EF 100-400MM F4.5/5.6L IS USM lens. The RAW images were imported into Adobe Lightroom for exposure adjustment, cropping, and a small amount of Dodge & Burn using the local adjustment brush.
Have a great day!
