chickadee

[Dave Slaughter]

Black capped chickadee. He had caught some type of invertebrate but I'm not sure what. He whapped this against the branch and spent several minutes trying to chew through the integument, unsuccessfully, before flying off. The background aspen leaves were lit by early morning light. Canon Xti, 170-500mm sigma lens at 500 mm, iso 400. I am not real facile in photoshop but on previewing this post I can see that removing some of the lower twigs would help the image. I did some sharpening around the eyes. Any other suggestions appreciated.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Dave - love that soft early morning light and well done on capturing the action. Good job on the eye :) BG is Nice
although maybe a little distracting. I think you are correct about the two vertical branches, removing them would certainly improve.

For my personal tatse - head angle is a problem in that he sort of looks like he has no beak, there is no seperation there, which is making it look funny to my eye's - could just be my eyes though :)

[Arthur Morris]

Basics:
1-get the bird out of the center of the frame with most horizontals (this one included).
2-try to point your shadow at the bird. The light is from the right here.

Interesting thing that the bird has there! Looks like he caught it in a puddle as its chin is wet but looks way to big for it to tackle...

The eye is indeed sharp. With time you will learn to try and avoid distracting twigs rather than remove them.

[Gail Spitler]

I agree with Lance's comments; there is much to like here but the "missing" beak is very unsettling.

Gail

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great capture, do agree with the above comment regarding the beak.
Regards,

[Alfred Forns]

Good solid advice !!! Can go wring with it !!!