Mountain BlueBird

[Keith Bauer]

This Bluebird was photographed at Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge in Northern New Mexico. My goal was to create a background that mimmicked the bluebird. The tan lower part of the background are grasses, the middle blue is a distant mountain, and finally the blue sky. Late Afternoon Light.

5D, 500mm f/4 with 1.4X at f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 100
Beanbag from car.

[Tony Whitehead]

Awesome image Keith, I think you achieved your goal

[Anita Rakestraw]

This makes for a striking image, Keith! I love how the background colors echo the bird's coloration; and I love the composition in general. I'm inexperienced enough that I need to ask: was this the natural background and your camera settings resulted in this gradient-like blur? The only thing I can see to nitpick about is the halo around the bird's back, head, and especially the beak. You are probably aware of several ways to avoid that haloing, one being to sharpen on a layer and then erase the halo.

[Michael Sowden]

I love everything about this. Colours, comp, and perch are all great.

Mike

[Mike Lentz]

The BG colors really make this image a beauty. I'd consider cropping some off of the left side.

[Michael Lloyd]

Nicely done. The colors in the birds plumage and the colors in the background seem to be made for each other. I'm a fan of rule-of-thirds cropping and for me cropping such that the birds head fell within "the rule" would improve the image.. then again... it's a fine image as it stands. Nice work.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the details, perch and BG. I would crop a bit off the left, apply some NR on the BG and desaturate the image a bit. The sharpening halo has been mentioned.

[Rene Quenneville]

I love this picture. It is very pleasing. I alos like the crop leaving a lot of room to the left, with such a pleasing background, it makes it great. I also noticed the sharpening halo.

[Maxis Gamez]

Very nice composition, colors and details. Excellent work!

[Doug Brown]

Welcome aboard Keith! Good work on the bluebird.

[Alfred Forns]

Keith this works for me That bg is just sweet !!!! Would consider taking a tad of the back One strong and beautiful image !!! Big Congrats !!!

[Fabs Forns]

Simply beautiful and my nit is the little bit of halo, easy to fix.

the colors are to die for :)

[John Cooper]

Exquisite was the first word that came to me Keith - The play of colours and the sheer simplicity just makes this image jump out at you. Congratulations!!