Yellow-headed Blackbird (f)

[Joe Ford]

Taken from car window. Sun was behind me to the left. I thought a bit about what to so with the vertical branch in the center of the shot. If I removed the part above the bird, I would end up with the branch magically vanishing behind the bird. I couldn't remove all of it or the bird would have to stand in mid air. So I ended up doing nothing. Advice?

Canon 1DMKiii
Canon 400/f5.6
Canon 1.4 TC

ISO 800
1/1000 f9 +1/3 exposure compensation

thanks for looking and all comments are appreciated

Joe

[Robert Amoruso]

Joe,

I think because of where the bird has his foot the branch needs to stay. Nice looking bird. Seems his head might be turned away a bit, but the catch light may be making it seem that way - sometimes I have a hard time judging it when only slightly off. BG a nice neutral gray and I like the OOF grass in the BG too.

[Gus Cobos]

Nice colors on your bird, very sharp, good eye contact. The problem that I have is the branch going through his body, I would clone just the top portion of that twig out...:eek:

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Joe Can add that I would like it with a little more room, feels a little tight. Fill flash would have helped particularly the bottom which looks a bit dark !!!

[Doug Brown]

I think it's a little tight in the frame too Joe. I don't particularly like the branch, but I don't think you can remove it for the reasons outlined above. The BG is quite nice, and the bird is pretty sharp.

[John Robuck]

Joe, what about removing the main stem of the branch showing above the bird, along with the twig on the upper right of it, but leaving the much slimmer twig to the left of the main stem -- that would get rid of the larger distraction, leaving the illusion that the branch the bird's foot is on continues out as the smaller twig....