Baltimore Oriole

[Jim Crosswell]

This was taken last year at my backyard set-up. This was not the spot I wanted him to land but I still like the image. I wish a blossom was facing the Oriole. All C&Cs are welcome and appreciated.

Canon 40D
500L f4
1.4 Extender
ISO 500
f7.1
1/125s
Ev 0.33
Tripod

[gail bisson]

Hi Jim,
The head, eye and beak look awesome. Tack sharp and perfect exposure.
I like the composition.
My bug-a-boo with this shot is the pink and orange really clash and compete. I also wish the flower was as sharp as the bird and , (as you have identified) the flower faced the viewer or the bird.
Gail

[laurie golden]

Jim,

I think this is beautiful. Like the colors and the bird is so sharp. I agree with Gail that it would be nice to have the flowers sharper, you might try just sharpening them more if you have not tried that yet but I would be very happy with the shot as it is.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great detail and exposure on the face, nice diagonal perch. I wish for more dof though.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Good pose and details on the head, nice composition. The blossom not facing the bird does not bother me but more dof would have been better. Looking at the techs, I think you didn't have much choice about aperture, 1/125 is quite slow for perching birds that are not very cooperative, on the 40D I use higher iso on rare ocasions, so I think you did well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I have yet to have anything decent on orioles, so I appreciate to see this beautiful view of one. I'm OK with the flower facing away, but like others I'd prefer to see it in focus too. I'm also OK with clashing colours...works well with nature, not so well for fashion:S3:

[PhilCook]

99% perfect, bit more dof would be good.....but the rest is about as good as it can get...excellent image and envious you got this in your backyard, I can see zero problem with the way the flower is facing ?...and the flower being less sharp than the bird is desirable in my thoughts so as not to compete strongly with the bird

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome image. Beautiful light quality and I love the size of the blossom
in relation to the bird. Only suggestion here would have been to take off the
extender...that probably would have given you all the dof you needed to get
the flower in focus, plus giving you more shutter speed to work with. The
background looks so well controlled that a slight deduction in focal length looks
like it still would have worked great.

[Satish Ranadive]

Absolutely superb image.Love the beautiful bird with nice colors and details.

Regards,
Satish.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful and colorful image. Sharp and well composed, Jim.