With a Warily Eye

[Mike Tracy]

Spoonbill at rest keeping track of me. I have already desaturated the reds. Might need to go even further with them.

MKIII, EF500@1.4x, 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 400.

[Juan Aragonés]

I love that eye Mike. Pose of the bird and light are fantastic. I think that there is a lot of differences in terms of relative sharpness between th eye end the wing coverts that has almost no detail. The bird is a bit tight in the frame to my taste.

[Connie Mier]

Mike, I thought the same two things as Juan mentioned. I would like to see more room around the bird, especially to the right. Beautiful colors and the emphasis on the eye is a nice perspective, but I sure like to see those spoonbills.

[Ramon M. Casares]

On my monitor it looks oversaturated and I would suggest to brighten the BG a bit. I like the pose, comp, exposure, detail and species! Congratulations!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Mike Would tone down just a little more and leave room for the virtual feet !!! Love that eye and has an excellent feel !!!

[Daniel Belasco]

I assume this was taken in the evening's yellowish sun.
I think considering the light you've done the best you could do. The dof is small and the focus is on the eye and the legs/foot. They are both real sharp. But the wings lack detail and the neck feathers look strange. At 1/2000 sec I would have stopped down a little to capture more detail of the feathers of the wing.
I like dark BG's so that looks fine to me.

[Phil Ertel]

I like the pose (love the eye). I also like the background as it looks natural to me. Just a little more room at the bottom and our right would be more to my taste. Thanks for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The posters above have all mentioned the main concerns - and I agree with them. Nice low angle, I like how the spoonbill is keeping an eye out on you!

[Mike Tracy]

Thank you for your time, observations and suggestions. I will go back and start from scratch or edit another frame in this sequence that might be better.