Gila Woodpecker

[Bruce Spell]

130567
Taken locally in Tucson, Az at Saguaro National Park last January.
Olympus E5, 90-250 + EC 20 (406 mm on Oly 2X sensor for 812 mm effective FOV), f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 250 using a monopod with a gimbal head attached.
I've removed a partial branch from upper left background since it was distracting. Crop for composition, NR on background, output for web.

Comments and critique gladly accepted.

[gail bisson]

Very nice find.
You have a nice composition and the perch is nicely sized for the woodpecker and always good to have the perch on the diagonal as it is more visually appealing. Nice clean BG. I would take a bit off the top for my tastes.
I find the entire image quite dark and would increase the exposure a bit and do some adjustments in shadows and highlights to get some detail out of the blacks,
Gail

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely comp & pose. agree with Gail about the image being a bit on the darker side.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Very nice comp and background, but would work the shadows/exposure as Gail mentioned. Nice shot.

[Bruce Spell]

130592
Thank you Gail, Girish, and Jeannean. I am still learning so much from all the expert help here. After seeing your comments about the darkness of this shot I went back and looked at the histogram. There was plenty of room to increase exposure (doh!).
130593

I've brought the exposure up by 2/3 of a stop in this repost. Didn't try a new crop or shadow adjustment (yet). What do you think of the overall exposure now?

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image of wood pecker on beautiful perch. Nice lights in the re post, looks very nice.
Love the pose,colors,details,nice BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.