A short and sweet blog post about paying attention to small details, in this case at a setup perch.  See the image immediately below.  At first glance the image is appealing enough.  A male American Redstart on a beautifully blooming crab apple tree branch.  Good light and background.  All is well in warbler photography world, right?  Well, maybe for most, but to some (like me) a couple of leaves are just much too close to the subject and are rather distracting.  When I saw the scene developing through the viewfinder I immediately saw this problematic element.

American Redstart, Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/5.6, ISO 800.

These two long leaves would be an easy fix during post-processing, but it’s even better to get it right in the field.  I proceeded to go over and physically pinch them off the perch, and hoped for the warbler to perch there again.  I was lucky it did, and I had a clean frame to work with, but this was a small detail that should have been noticed from the get-go an dealt with before working the camera.  I could have just easily have ended up with a bit more post-processing than could have been needed.  Here’s a frame of when it did come back to the wanted spot (as a bonus I got a better profile head angle too):

American Redstart, Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/5.6, ISO 800.

Small lesson:  although we can always “Photoshop” it out, it’s always easier to prepare first, and avoid extra processing work later.  Always best, and more satisfying, to get it right with proper planning!  To close out this short and sweet blog post, here’s my personal favorite from that session:

American Redstart, Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/500s., f/5.6, ISO 800.