Cardinal

[John Rowell]

138710

Whenever I go to Ding Darling, the Cardinals are always flying back and forth across the road. I like watching them as I look around, but they are quick and don't usually perch for long. On this particularly slow day, I was waiting for something to happen and this guy lands in the branches and just sits there. Shot through a guard rail which then had to be cropped and cloned out of the image. Sure enough, as soon as I tried to adjust my position he flew off. This is a heavy crop, with a lot of work to remove branches on the right side, one that seemed to spear him horizontally behind the head, and guard rail diagonally down the left side.

D4, 600 mm, Tripod mounted, 1/400 sec. at f4, iso 400. Catch light by fill flash.

All comments are appreciated. Thanks.

[Henry Domke]

The "looking over the shoulder" pose is a nice change. The gradation from sky blue to fresh green in the background is appealing.
The stems in front of the bird are distracting.
The tail is rather worn and has a ratty-looking tip.

[gail bisson]

I don't know if I would have done all the PP work you did!
The look back pose and IQ on the cardinal are excellent.
You have great light and a really pretty color palette with the greens, reds and pinks.
The branches intersecting in front of the tail and back are problematic though.
Gail

[Marina Scarr]

I find this image extremely please as is, John. I love window for the cardinals' head. The feather details in your bird are amazing. The color of the twigs are perfect for your subject and the soft BG works well. I don't see any evidence of the work you did to this. A very fine image indeed...very artistic.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very well done on the processing as I cannot tell where what was. Love the pose of the cardinal, and the perch is very nice and delicate. At first I was on the fence about the branches in front of the cardinal...but they are growing on me...the subject looks nicely nestled among them.