Red-winged Blackbird

[Bill Dix]

In full voice, if not quite full display. From Parker River NWR on a dull afternoon in July. Taken vertically; slight crop for comp. Removed one oof bit of phrag.

D7000, 700 mm, ISO 1600, 1/500s @ f/7.1 manual, fill @ -1.7 EV.

[gail bisson]

Hi Bill,
The layered BG colors are lovely and I like the IQ and DOF on the bird.
Exposure is spot on and I love the detail in the layered tail feathers. The perched feet resting on 2 different stalks is very appealing.
I am not sure about the comp. I find the cut off perch in RUC very abrupt looking. I wonder if you shot this as a horizontal to include the entire perch? I think I would like that better.
Gail

[Melissa Groo]

Super singing pose and details in those blacks, Bill. The feet on the different perches really makes this unique. I'd be interested to see this as a horizontal too if you have the space.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Gail and Melissa. This was shot as a vertical, and I just cropped up a bit from the bottom. He was too close to shoot horizontally, although if he had stuck around I suppose I could have removed the TC (I was on a boardwalk, and couldn't reposition myself).

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the singing pose, sharpness, multi perch, exposure and gradient BG. Well done Bill!

[Greg Oakley]

Awesome stuff Bill - terrific singing pose, perch and I love the 2-tone BG

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm OK with the crop, and you certainly did nail the exposure. Good calling pose and add me as a fan of the double perch foot grab...quite appealing indeed. Theonly thing is that I find your image a little too "cyan" overall. I added 20 points of reds in "Color Balance to hopefully fix that. What do you think?

[Marina Scarr]

Love the comp, perches, gradient BG and esp the calling pose.

[Bill Dix]

I'm OK with the crop, and you certainly did nail the exposure. Good calling pose and add me as a fan of the double perch foot grab...quite appealing indeed. Theonly thing is that I find your image a little too "cyan" overall. I added 20 points of reds in "Color Balance to hopefully fix that. What do you think?

Thanks Daniel. I'll admit that I wondered about the color balance. Your fix is an improvement. I'll go back and change the master file. Thanks.

[Girish Prahalad]

great calling pose & details. like the comp as presented. the blacks look better in Daniel's repost.

[BobbyPerkins]

That's a great Blackbird shot! Nailed the exposure. Love that he's singing, I think the perch is perfect as enviromental clue, (like the double foot grab too). Great clean gradient bg. Dan's repost did warm things up a bit nicely.