Blue Jay in crab apple tree

[gail bisson]

Canon 1D MKIV
F 500mm
ISO 800
f 6.3
SS 1/800
On tripod, cropped by ~25% and cloned a small twig that was in front of bird.
I thought I would post an image of this common but often overlooked bird.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.
Had to desat the green BG quite significantly.

[Peter Dexter]

Very nice composition and I like the "zi-zag" effect of the wing and tail lines. Like the way he's looking at us too.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Nice look back pose, agree with Peter about the wing/tail position. Soft BG.

Pretty good DOF, always a challenge on look back poses. The shoulder/coverts look a bit sharper to me than the face. The face seems to be slightly in the shadows compared with wings.

Nice framing effect from the leaves.

I find blue jays rather a challenge to photograph, pretty spooky for a backyard bird, at least in my area.

Cheers

Randy

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Gail, really like the composition and detail.
I agree with Randy about the head being a bit darker than the rest of the body.
I might consider lightening the head and darkening the leaves on the bottom left.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Gail I love the image I really like the framing, the bottom left leaf I would consider darkening a little. I think this image will look different depending upon which template viewers are using, I use the BP-Light setting, I like the appearance of the Capt. James setting but the dark framing can sometimes give a different impression about an images exposure and contrast etc. I don't know if this is why Randy & Miguel think the head is a tad dark? It is of course a little darker than the wings but on my monitor it looks acceptable. (I accept of course that we are looking in different ambient light and may not have our monitors identically set up etc.)

[David N Smith]

Gail, I like the composition and I agree the head may be a little darker but that may be from the way the light is striking the bird.

David

[Rachel Hollander]

Gail - I like the modified look-back pose and the tail feathers. Comp works well as does the bg. Personally, I might apply just a tad more sharpening to the head.

TFS,
Rachel

[Richard Mc Donald]

Perfect pose from your Blue Jay Gail, we get to see the head profile and the lovely colours on its back all topped of with a great perch and beautiful back ground.

Richard

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, super pose with the Jay looking along the line of the perch, and Ive really liked the blues in these birds. The Jay pops nicely against the BG, and I like the inclusion of the foliage on the RHS.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact, Gail.

[Shawn Zierman]

Love the color scheme. Blue jays against a green color field are just plain striking. I wish the light that was falling on the tail was illuminating the face as well.
On the other hand, I'll bet this was not a "set up" where one could anticipate having better control over the light, and the light is not contrasty, so it's still pleasing
to the eye imo. Fill flash would have been nice imo too. Good clone job, I don't see any evidence of it... I played around with the crop, partly because like a previous
post said, the bright oof leaf in the lower left was catching my eye. I'm not good at explaining "take some of the top, some of this side, and, etc. etc." So, I'll just
post the crop that I would suggest. (Apologies for clipping your signature).

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. I really like the pose, excellent details, and great background.
Well done.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely bird, pose, colors, BG. Leaves are a great accent. My second thought upon opening the pictures was that pesky OOF leave. I would experiment with recrops.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I do like those leaves personally and the way they anchor the comp...but I like the small compositional tweak Shawn did as I too was not liking the OOF leaf at the very LLC. Like others I really would have liked the light to splash the face...the dodge tool tool used judiscioulsy would work very well here. Excellent BG and overall colours, and the jay gave you a perfect head turn! I may be in the minority here, but I would have preferred a more profile body angle but I do appreciate this fella showing off of its beautiful tail feathers:S3:

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for your help. I never even noticed the OOF leaf and I agree it the shot looks better without out. Thanks Shawn for the repost.
This was not a setup so had little control over light etc.
Daniel-I do have a side view but I liked the visibility of the tail on this one.
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent looking back pose, Gail> I always liked this species, ever since I saw them at Pinery first time in my life.
I just saw a large flock Today. They are on the move.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, excellent composition and pose. DOF coverage is tricky in these situations but you covered most of the bird nicely. Without setups, they are not very easy to photograph. great colors.

[dankearl]

It is tough to get DOF with this pose, but it appears fine to me. A very attractive bird, we don't have them where I live,
so they are not common for me.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gail,
Every thing has been said about this marvelous image.Love the composition,nice posture of jay and colors.

Regards,
Satish.