yellow-bellied sapsucker

[Joel Arrington]

Canon 40D, 1/250@f/11 manual, ISO 400, Flash fill with Beamer from a blind

[Judd Patterson]

Joel, this is a beautiful image of a bird species that can be hard to approach. I really enjoy all the details here including the stiff tail being used as a brace, feet clearly visible, the sapwell that the bird was drilling, and the pleasing background. I woulds suggest that you try recropping this image with a CCW rotation to straighten the tree trunk...maybe not perfectly straight, but experiment with few options. Nice work!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, pose and exposure control. I would remove the color noise and there is a slight sharpening halo. Regarding the head, it looks a bit soft, maybe some motion blur. You could try to selectively sharpen it since the body looks good.

[Joel Arrington]

Joel, this is a beautiful image of a bird species that can be hard to approach. I really enjoy all the details here including the stiff tail being used as a brace, feet clearly visible, the sapwell that the bird was drilling, and the pleasing background. I woulds suggest that you try recropping this image with a CCW rotation to straighten the tree trunk...maybe not perfectly straight, but experiment with few options. Nice work!
Terrific idea, even if the tree was leaning, and easily executed. Thanks

[Dick Boone]

Joel, out of curiosity, I copied your image and in PS I applied some brightening in curves. The details just popped, and with the lightened BG, the bird really stands out.

God bless.....Dick