It’s sometimes said that the camera adds pounds to a subject, so maybe these Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata) that I saw last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge are not quite as chubby as they appear at first glance.
I was trying to be funny, but it actually is true that the focal length of a lens can affect the features of a subject. Most of you have probably seen how a fish-eye lens can make a face look bloated in the middle and stretched out on the edges. Other lenses can produce less dramatic effects. Generally it is believed that you get the most flattering portrait of a human subject with a lens of 85mm to 135mm. Here’s a link to an interesting article at businessinsider.com that shows a series of images of a face that were shot with lenses from 20mm to 200mm.
In this case, I think the birds are taking advantage of the abundant food sources while they are still around. Some of these warblers may be continuing their journeys southward, but others may choose to spend part of the winter with us.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Plump and happy is good! Nice autumn backgrounds in these super-sharp images you’ve captured, Mike.
Thanks, Eliza. We’re having a cold snap now and I suspect many of the leaves will be falling from the trees soon. It’s nice to be able to get the wonderful autumn color in some of the shots.
Lovely bird shots🙂
Thanks, Louella. When the weather is warmer, I am often photographing dragonflies and other insects, but now that winter is approaching, I have mostly switched to photographing birds of all sorts.
They do look, um, healthy.
Nothing this pretty in our woods!