California Towhee

[Jack Dean III]

This is a picture of a California Towhee I took this while hiking Cowles Mountain in San Diego. I guess it's kind of special to me because living in Kentucky I don't get to see them.
Canon 7d - EF 400m f/5.6 lens - f/7.1 - 1/640 sec. - ISO 500 - processed in lightroom

[gail bisson]

Hi Jack,
Welcome to BPN!
Nice image. Good eye contact and head turn. Nice to have the body parallel to the sensor so the bird is nice and sharp throughout.
The eye is really nice and clear and the view of the feet really help the image.
I find the color palette a bit bland but it's not like you could do anything about that.
BG a bit busy.
The whitish branch that intersects with the tail really pulls my eye and I would clone it out or trim it back an inch.
Looking forward to your participation,
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks for sharing this frame and welcome, the BG is just too buys for me and the head is a bit softer than the chest, such busy environment is generally not a favorable situation for bird photography. BTW, checkout the ETL forum as well with lots of great resources and advice.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jack, Nicely framed with a good exposure. The big problem for me here is the image quality, especially on the face which looks quite jangly, most likely from being over-sharpened. Do check out the ETL Forum. artie

[Marina Scarr]

The colors all blend so nicely in this image, and the bird has such a fun pose with that cocked head.

[Grace Scalzo]

Hello, Jack. I'll offer a couple thoughts. We all take pics of birds for different reasons...some for ID purposes, some for memories of what we are seeing on our journeys, some to develop a portfolio of many different species, and some to try and create "fine art"...(whatever that is):w3 I think that this image fits your stated purpose well, that being a picture of a nice bird that you don't see where you live. I do think that there are some things to be learned that will make your captures better and more pleasing to your eye if you look at images posted here, continue to share yours, comment on others (VERY important to your own learning and also contributing to others) and read everything that you can on this forum and on ETL. Looking forward to your journey.