Goldfinch on Thistle ~ Late Light

[Jim Fenton]

I've been watching as these thistle plants mature along a small pond near home and I knew that they were really beginning to bloom.

On the way to work yesterday morning I noted a goldfinch sitting nearby and thought that perhaps they had begun feeding on some of the spent flowers / seeds, so on the way home I stopped by to check.

It took a while for the bird to calm to my presence, but just as the light was about to set below the horizon of the hill behind me, things seemd to come together.

Nikon D300, 500AFS~VR, TC14EII, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/500, NearUniWB preset, CW metering, -.7EV compensation

[Mike Milicia]

Gorgeous image, Jim!
Techs look perfect! Tough to get the yellows right on these guys and you pulled it off wonderfully.

Not sure about the crop.
Given the pose and the angle of the perch, might try taking some off the top and right, getting the bird a bit more to the right and slightly above the diagonal of the frame.

[Jim Fenton]

I actually tried numerous crops with this image and at one point even had it as a vertical.

I'll give your reccomendations...and the others which I'm sure I'll get, a try this evening :)

[Fabs Forns]

Actually I see Mike's point, but given the size of the perch, I'd probably settled for the same crop. Well done!

[Mike Lentz]

Great light, pose and tack sharp! Great image!

[Pramod Viswanath]

Beautiful image Jim. Contrasting colors makes this image for me.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Excellent in all respects!!!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jim,
I like this as is but will give another possible crop suggetion..........taking some off the bottom......w/o clipping the large brown tipped thorn.......would put the eye/face on the ROT point.........but like I said earlier........very nice as is!

[Doug Brown]

I like the crop as is. It's a great photo! There does seem to be a small greenish halo around the head and back of the bird. Thanks for posting!

[Jim Fenton]

I sactually due to reflection from the ambient green plant material which was just off to the side and below.

Try as I might, I couldn't make it go away.