Black-throated green warbler

[Keith Carver]

Following a stiff NW wind the previous evening we had a nice fallout of warblers on Monhegan Island ME on the morning of September 25. There were a dozen or so BT green warblers in the spruce trees, but they rarely stayed put for more than a few seconds so achieving focus was a challenge.

1DM3, 500 mm x 1.4X, ISO 800, f/9, 1/1600 sec, EC -0.3.

Comments, suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Tony Whitehead]

Well caught, Keith. Nice light on the subject but the bright, thick perch is a bit distraction. may be worth trying to burn it in a little. The blues in the BG complement the yellows well. A very slightly tighter crop may be worth trying unless it is already heavily cropped. Clone mark mentioned.

[Keith Carver]

Thanks, Peter and Tony. I cropped slightly but wanted to keep a few of the spruce needles to give context. I trimmed and slightly burned the FG branch, although I can see I need to work on my technique. Clone mark at top left was cropped out. Other than that clone-mark flaw in the ORIG, I don't know if the repost is a real improvement or not, so I would appreciate your opinions.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, good angle and eye contact. The perch is quite large but I don't think there is anything you could have done about it.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Good image considering the setting. I do find the dark and blue patches in the BG a little distracting though. However, if this is the setting, then it is very good for that! :)

[Aidan Briggs]

Tack sharp, and great exposure, though the setting is not ideal. The repost is an improvement IMO, but you can tell where the branches were cloned out. You might try a water drip or something to get him in a better setting.

[Sid Garige]

Very nice job with exposure and details. Not sure about perch running straight through the image.

[Keith Carver]

Very nice job with exposure and details. Not sure about perch running straight through the image.

Aesthetically the BG is too busy, far from the simple clean BGs we usually strive for on BPN. However, these BT green warblers were in spruce trees, a very busy environment with lots of branches, needles, perches, black OOF lines, etc. I first thought about taking out the large distracting horizontal black line (an OOF branch) but ultimately decided not to do it - environmental fidelity trumping artistic simplicity.

[Harshad Barve]

nice expo and details , BG & perch do not bother me much
TFS