Ethereal House Finch (2025)

A few months ago my partner and I set up some bird feeders on our tiny apartment balcony to try and get some easy bird photography, as well as enjoy the sights and sounds of birds as we eat dinner in our living room each evening. Our balcony is now home to several hummingbirds, goldfinches, juncos, and house finches. The bird in the photo, we believe is one of our house finches, either a female or juvenile. I caught them sitting on our balcony railing at just the right moment.

This is also an early attempt of mine to edit RAW. While I’ve been photographing for decades, I finally gave in and started shooting RAW along with JPG. While it’s definitely been a challenge, I think it really paid off in this photo, with all the delicate feather detail that’s visible.

I absolutely love how ON1’s tools helped me show off this beautiful bird! The background consisted of some tree branches with purple flowers and the side of another apartment building. I was thrilled to see that good bokeh and ON1 together were able to make a truly mesmerizing background to go along with the bird.