I took approx. 2.000 images this January. Why? Because I had the time ( christmasholiday and my birthday were I took two days off ) and because I really love to take pictures in winter. The reason is simple: The light is much better as the angle of the sun is lower and there are more overcast days ( my favourite conditions ).

I took plenty of colorfull and razorsharp images in the zoo and in nature. I took images with my new lens the 12-24DX and some great snow images in our garden. So why did I choose this shot for January´s picture of the month? Because I like it most. It is funny ( at least for me ), captured the action and is full of life. I like that it is nearly monochrome ( I wrote about this in my picture of the month April 2003 ).

I changed the WB in Capture to sunny to enhance the blue hue of the image that was taken in shade. I cropped the image as even with a "900mm"-lens I wasn´t close enough. And I moved the blacksilder in levels right inside the histogram to darken the birds to intensify the "graphical quality" of the picture.

settings: M-Mode, 900mm equ., 1/500s @ f5.6, tripod, WB: cloudy -3 but changed the sunny in Capture