These guys have been so elusive for me over the past year or so, I can never seem to snaffle one as they scurry through and behind the foliage. I have lots of lovely blurry, underexposed, and tail tip shots, and my favourite when I thought I'd nailed a shot a few months back, albeit a bit far away, got home and downloaded it to find it was exposed ok, sharpish, but....there was a stick dead centre running through his eye 
You know the feeling, right? That one bird you really want a good eyeful of, but it keeps getting away? 
While the shots didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, stoked I finally saw one out in the open, even dodged into a little bit of sunlight for me too at one point. Nice birdy. I don't think he looks a lot like some of the descriptions I've read though, drab, dull etc, with Tassie subspecies even more dull apparently? I think he's pretty and boy, love love their song. Hope you enjoy.
Olive Whistler, male (subspecies Pachycephala apatetes)
Heard him, glimpsed him, then snaffled a shot before he hid again.
To my surprise, he flew ahead of me into a slightly less gloomy section of bush and posed for a brief few seconds.
Before turning tail as if to say, are you happy now? Photoshoot over. On my monitor, this shot looks exactly as how I remember it, but it certainly doesn't look olive-brown? More yellow. Or perhaps that's just my interpretation of the colouration.
Then he surprised me again by landing one more time as I left.
Stunning! I bet you're proud of the last shot!
I watched a tutorial once about removing an unwanted branch that was on a photograph. I don't know how to do it but that vertical branch to the right is almost begging to be removed.
Samford Valley Qld.
I do like that one too, lost a bit of detail with the crop though. But ohhhh Reflex I KNOW! I so want that branch gone!! But alas, I don't have any editing skills to speak of either
- perhaps one day I should actually stop talking about it, and learn, haha. I was leaning to the left as far as I could, and couldn't step that way further or I would have ended up rolling down twenty metres of cliff into the river. I suppose I could have tried.... 
West Coast Tasmania
I love mumber 2 but I get a lot of number 3 ,on the last one I think you have cropped just a tad to tight just my opinion ,and this is one image worth a bit of PP a great one to practice on, go on make a copy and have a go at it what have you got to loose .
there is nothing like the satisfaction of taking a great image and making it a stunner ,once you get the hang of it you'll be amazed how easy it is and you'll find yourself going through your old photos to do the same
Hi Annie J,
That lost shot is soooo amazing, one of the best Olive Whistler shots I've seen, honestly you photos keep on getting better and better.
Well done! If this was flickr I'd fave it but I'll fave it on flickr anyway.
Cheers Babybirdwatcher
I'm a self-confessed consistently crappy cropper sparrow
I yin when I should yang, or something. PS not in the budget at the moment I'm afraid, and I'm pretty sure I downloaded the trial version a couple of years ago, so don't think I can even do that - and it hurt my brain from memory, thought it would be easier just to go back out and try again 
. But jokes aside, you are right indeed, I need get off my butt and learn it, especially for those hard (for me) to come by birdy's!.
How about this crop? I think the extra (less obtrusive) branches on the right in this crop, might even actually detract a little from the annoying one almost up his beak.
West Coast Tasmania
So what is the best way to learn how to do it?
Samford Valley Qld.
Wonderful photos - a lovely little fellow.
(btw here is a special offer for Photoshop CC and lightroom for $10 per month on a subscription plan https://creative.adobe.com/plans/offer/photoshop+lightroom
)
First get a copy of photoshop it doesn't have to be the latest version cs2 or 3 is fine and then book yourself in to do a basic photoshop course at your local tafe ,I know people who have learned from the internet but if you want to learn quickly and properly theres nothing like having someone looking over shoulder who does know how to do it ,but in the end its trial and error, lots of error ,after all its our mistakes that we learn the most from.
Thanks Sparrow. I'd love to do a course at tafe and will look into it. Is photoshop a completely different thing to Lightroom?
Samford Valley Qld.
All photo editing progams do basically the same thing to some degree but photoshop is the industry standard by which all the others are measured
there is a lot of people out there using Lightroom, I'm not one of them ,I look at it this way anything you can do in lightroom you can do in photoshop but it doesn't go the other way !
Thanks BabyBirdwatcher! Thanks for all that info Sparrow, definitely a Tafe course would suit my particular learning style better too - something I need to look into! Cool, thanks for that link WD!! I'm going to run out of excuses soon not to learn it, lol.
West Coast Tasmania
Great shots, Annie. As for the branch, the best way to get rid of it is to go shoot the bird again
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
West Coast Tasmania
Haha, just the responce i thought i would get.
On a serious note, don't bother getting the full Photoshop just get Photoshop elements. It is much cheaper and you will still not use all it's potential.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
Aww, what a sweet little birdy, and so accomodating.
AnnieJ, Thought you might be interested in this tutorial. This is the one I mentioned earlier in the thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JAxDtYPl4w&list=UULVHIbesoynX0DeleFhx9FQ
Scroll through the list on the right until you find, Nature Photography Workshop Cloning in Adobe Photoshop.
(He makes it look so easy!)
Samford Valley Qld.
Beautiful shots Annie, you must be happy
Just to add my own take on Lightroom V Photoshop. Lightroom main strength is its database approach to photo management, with some pp thrown in, while PS is much more pp orientated.
I use Lightroom now for all my photo management, using keywords, and will never go back to any other system
I use PS very little, do any exposure changes, minor adjustments etc in LR, but do know that using clone stamp in PS to remove that branch for example is very easy.
I honestly can't be bothered with, it but have used it a couple of times for my own keepers. I personally wouldn't post a shot that had been pp'd to that extent, but each to their own.
Cheers
I love Olive Whistler's. Great photo's, especially the last one, good job!
Yes, Glenn Bartley has great technique and has obviously edited a few photos in his time ,he makes it look so easy because it is !
People have this idea that using photoshop is hard or complicated, its not ,if an old technophobe like me can learn it any one can !
I liken it to learning to drive a car at first all the contlols and rules seem daunting but once you have the basics down its not as scary as you thought then its the three R's "repetition repetition repetition" picking up more as you go along then it all becomes a reflex and you just do it, and once you have masterd the basics in photoshop the more advanced stuff looks less and less daunting .
A lot of us on here are old enough to remember life with out computers they were new and scary and the instructions might as well been written in another language for all they were worth but we worked it out ,its the same thing !
I have seen 70 year olds pick up the basics in no time and hunger for more ,they pick it up so quick because they don't know its suppost to be hard ,no one has told them !
Oh thanks for that Reflex! I will definitely have a sit down and look at that later, with my Get Smart cone of silence on.
I used Lightroom for a while and although it seems to be what suits most people, there were many small things for me that I just didn't like. I couldn't be happier with NX2 for management and the conversion from RAW and all the rest, like anything I guess whatever works for the individual.
I hear you Rick. Speaking for myself I am far too lazy to sit for hours over one photo editing it, unless perhaps it was the last Dodo or something
. My priority is on slowly improving my photography skills, so I'd rather go out and have a crack again, rather than rely on ps skills or the like to constantly fix things up. But, photoshop is still a separate digital skill I would like to learn for my own personal use for many reasons. If I knew how, I wouldn't have any problems fixing something up for myself either, until I can get a better shot at least, and I'd happily post it - but I'd also state it has been heavily altered. That's just me. 
Thanks Tim! They have such a range of amazingly beautiful calls don't they? I ducked back to the same spot again today, on the off chance he was there, lounging in the open for me, with a nice wine and a box of chocolates
, but of course he wasn't.
West Coast Tasmania