Crested Caracara and Black-necked Stilt

[Michael Lloyd]

My first post here. I'm looking forward to learning some things from this forum and it's users.

EOS1DsMKII
ISO 200
1/3200@ f4
600mm

<edited> I tried something different on my hosting site. Hopefully the EXIF will come through. This one has less background clutter but honestly, I don't like it as well as I do the other one.

http://wlis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p846977232-4.jpg

[Bonnie Block]

I love the simple elegance of this bird. I think I would crop down a bit tighter and try to eliminate the oof background bird--it does distract me from the real subject. Lots of potential to be a lovely image.

[Tony Whitehead]

The background bird doesn't bother me. I would suggest a tighter crop just above the head of the background bird, just to the right of the dark stick in the water (which could be cloned out), enough below the feet to eliminate most of the blurred foreground and just to the right of the blurry upright twig on the left. This eliminate most of the distractions that catch my eye and really focuses in on the main subject. Difficult subject with black and white in sunlight - great to have a catchlight in the eye

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN! I like the idea but the OOF bird and the plants behind the bird in focus distracting. The OOF foreground looks cluttered but you could easily crop a bit. Keep them coming.

[Del Cockroft]

I find the OOF bird a little distracting from what would otherwise have been a perfect image. The heading mentions a Crested Caracara, but I don't see it??

[Michael Lloyd]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I am always surprised at (and grateful for) what other people see that I don't (which is why I share my images for critique).

I shot this with the idea of the background bird being a slightly OOF mirror image of the other bird. Unfortunately the messy background greenery takes away from that. I fully agree that a tighter crop is in order no matter what and that the foreground needs to be cleaned up.


Del- Is posting more than one image per thread allowed? I don't know what happened to it. I'll put it in another thread.

[Michael Lloyd]

I changed the image to something a little more "isolated" if that's the way to describe it. Thoughts?