Dartford Warbler with prey

[shane shacaluga]

Managed to find a pair of these on one of my recent hikes. They were a lot braver than the Sardinian warbler which we usually get here

The nest must have been nearby as they were just circling in the same area

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=130340&d=1373394098

Nikon D7000
420mm @ f7.1
1/1250
ISO 800

Cloned out an OOF branch in the LRC and then applied light gaussian blur to the BG
Usual levels, selective colour and Shadows/highlights workflow
USM @ 90% after reducing size
75% of full frame

[shane shacaluga]

Any idea why i dont get an icon on the Avian forum first page?

[Jeannean Ryman]

Lovely background and pose. The prey in it's mouth is always a bonus to me. Not sure why there's no icon. You're a member, so thought that was automatic.

[Randy Stout]

Shane:

Nice perky pose, minimalist perch, prey item, eye.

Some chroma type noise in the darker areas of the bg, perhaps from downsizing, or possibly from the selective color change, if that was the area you worked on.

The image details look just a bit coarse, esp. on the shoulder and back.

I will send off a note to our tech guy about you not having a thumbnail show up on the forum page with your post. Did you host the image on BPN, or link to it from another site. If the latter, it is probably the cause of the missing thumbnail.

Cheers

Randy

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks both for your comments. I processed this image at 1600 pixels wide then realised it was over the limit so downsized the jpeg. Will see if resizing the raw improves it. Thanks

[Satish Ranadive]

Shane:
Beautiful image of beautiful bird. I like the angle of light, colors,pose,prey in beak and lovely eye.
Very nice colorful BG and composition.Would crop on RHS. Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose and good BG. side light was not helping and agree about coarse details

TFS