This is actually the only image I took in 2025 that I am entirely pleased with.
I set up a feeding station for the birds about two miles from my home. It took about two weeks for the birds to find the seed and start feeding there regularly, but once they started they would show up reliably, as long as I kept putting more seed out. I love winter and think snow and ice and frost are so beautiful, so I was only interested in photographing these birds when there was snow .... when the snow melted, I didn't like how the photos looked, so I stopped shooting.
This was shot at very close range, like 7 feet. I am very thankful that my Sigma 60-600mm has such a close minimum focusing distance, because I would not have been able to take this picture with most of the 600mm telephotos that are on the market due to their longer minimum focus distance.
I laid in the snow for hours every day for a week and took thousands of photos of Juncos, Goldfinches, and various sparrow species. But this is the only frame that I am completely satisfied with. Yes you have to lay prone in the snow because if you sit in a chair so that you are comfortable then the angle doesn't give you a photo that is quite as pleasing to look at.
Canon 5D Mark 4
Sigma 60-600mm at 600mm
f8 / 1/1000 of a second / 1600 ISO
ran a light pass through Topaz DeNoise and removed a twig with the retouch tool in iPhoto
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