Great-tailed Grackle

[john jackson]

I took this female grackle in Honduras while sheltering on a balcony during a wet and windy day. It was a hand-held grab shot at 1/250 and f7.1 at the 400mm end of a 100-400mm zoom on a Canon 10D at 400ASA. It's a centre crop (full height of image).

I placed it in 'hand of man' because of the background (a tin roof). Not a natural backdrop, but I think the pink roof and green palm fronds make the image.

[Lana Hays]

Welcome, John
I like the diagonal of the palm frond with the pose of the grackle. Since this is a center crop I think that I'd crop to place the bird further to the right, taking him off center and then giving him more room to look out into. There is some nice detail in the frond. The eye and bill of the bird don't seem to be quite as sharp....perhaps add a little more sharpening to the bird. The color of the roof makes for an interesting BG.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi John, very attractive image, I agree on Lana's comments and wanted to add a big welcome to BPN!!!

[ashkan ojaghi]

Hi really nice image i loved the composition and the lines on the frame the bird stood out well and the sharpness is good .. the BG's color is wonderful .. what was behind the subject ? a pink surface or any other object?

[john jackson]

Hi all, and thanks for the welcome.

Yeah, the head is a little soft and I was wondering if it was noticeable with a plain bird against an OOF background, but Lana spotted it right away! I'm still pleased with the sharpness because of the gloomy conditions and the speed I had to act to get the picture; sometimes you just need to be glad you got an image at all. I must get myself some practice with selective sharpening...

Ashkan: the pink background is the corrugated tin roof of a building below me. The owner made it such a nice background colour for me!

[Rene Quenneville]

I love the colors. It is well balanced and make the picture stand-out. Have you tried to clone some of the leaves in the background? I am sure it would balance the picture even better. Great job!