Blue tit

[Jonathan Ashton]

Taken from garden hide, Canon 1Dx Canon 500mm f4 Auto ISO 160-0.3 1/800 sec f7.1
All C&C welcome.

[gail bisson]

Hi Jon,
The IQ of the image is topnotch.
I also like the mottled BG and the raised wing.
There are a couple of things that are problematic for me. It is unfortunate that the tit is looking away from the viewer and I do not feel the single strand of spider web adds much to the image.
Do you have enough room to include the top of the stem so that the branches aren't cut off by the crop? You could also consider pruning them back if you did not have room.
I have to say I prefer the others in your series,
Gail

[Shawn Zierman]

The pose is awesome, frankly everything is awesome in my opinion except the sharpness on the majority of the subject. The feet and perch are clearly sharper than the majority of the bird which is exhibiting motion blur due to 1/800 just not being enough shutter speed here....But, I can move past that and still appreciate the beauty of the moment, the delicate perch, the lovely subject...etc. They are such pretty birds. Wish we had them on this side of the pond.

[Bill Dix]

I'm enjoying this series, Jonathan. These are such lovely birds. I'll agree with the above critiques from Gail and Shawn.

[John Cooper]

The killer BG is a great backdrop for this action shot Jonathan. The magic head turn would have been the icing on the cake!

[Marina Scarr]

The BG, perch and IQ are awesome. The head turned away isn't working for me here.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much everyone, to be honest I was not aiming to take this type of image, I was concentrating on portraits and trying to determine a minimum shutter speed. I noticed this bird was just about to start a squabble so I clicked the shutter for a couple of frames. I agree it is a shame the head was not turned slightly toward the camera, that would have made a big difference. I regard the gossamer strand as an essential part of the image rather than a distraction, possibly a square format would be better.