Great spotted woodpecker

[Jonathan Ashton]

Taken from garden hide tripod head, peanuts were hidden in the log.
Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS ISO 250 1/500 sec f7.1

Slight reduction in the highlights on the bird and lichen, small re crop for presentation.
All comments welcome.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

What a sweet setup, Jon. Exposure is spot on, just love the perch, pose and the bg. Love that big foot.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jon. Very nice pose, sharpness, perch, and background. Also good detail in the whites. Because we don't see much of the bird's tail, it appears to be closer to the right side of the frame than the left - I might suggest cropping some from the left - right between the two bright lichens on that side of the perch. Overall, this is very nicely done!

[Marina Scarr]

What a lovely WP you have here, Jonathan. The colors and details are awesome. Love that perch as well. It has so much character. I agree with Steve on a crop from the left to put the image more off center. Doing a quick burn on portions of the perch wouldn't hurt either.

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

Lovely colors, sharp, well exposed. I would also crop a bit from the left. If the tail was on this side of the perch, different story.


Cheers

Randy

[jack williamson]

Great advice from everyone else. I'll just say that it is an excellent perch, sharp and well exposed with a fine BG.

[Lyle Gruby]

Agree with above. Pretty bird, very sharp, love the big ol' foot.

[Dudley Watson]

Excellent detail and colours..very well captured Johanthan

[MohsenVahedipour]

What a great soft light & set-up. Excellent IQ & HA. TFS

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome image! Perch quality is excellent. Subject pose is brilliant. I think anytime
you can get woodpeckers to perch horizontally, there is potential for a neat frame to be made,
and you certainly have done that here. Composition makes perfect visual sense to me,
particularly given the bend in the perch.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful perch and nice composition.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I did in fact make a couple of images from the original, one with a crop as you suggested, trouble was I really like the little mosses alongside the lichens. On a different but very similar image I also rotated the image through 90 degrees, I think in fact I made the crop you had suggested, I am not sure if it looks false or not, do you think the feet are realistically positioned?

[Satish Ranadive]

Jonathan:
Excellent image of WP with wonderful colors and great details.Beautiful perch and complimentary BG colors.
If I would not have seen OP,would not have known that you have rotated it in repost,which looks superb and natural.
Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

Striking image, Jonathan. I like the top one. The perch is as good as it gets.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, you couldnt have exposed this any better if you tried. The colours look spot on, as does the overall sharpness. You also seem to choose great looking perches for your setups - good work.

With regards to the placement, I can see your reasoning for placing the perch as you did, but Moving Woody back to the left will work too. :w3

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image,
The bird and the perch are amazing , lovely details and class light

[PhilCook]

Must say I thought the top one a bit comical.....as if he's on a sit down strike ...cant comment on if the feet look natural, but it is a cracker of an image

[David Salem]

Very nice shot. Like everything about this one. Exposed perfect and great detail. Well done!