Loggerhead Shrike

[Joe Brown]

I took this shot a couple of years ago at Gulf State Park in Alabama.
5D, f5.6, 1/2000, 300 2.8, 1.4 TC,
cropped, sharpened, increased contrast and exposure a little.

http://www.joebrownphotography.net/LHS.jpghttp://www.joebrownphotography.net/images/LHS.jpg

C&C Welcome.
Joe

[Tony Whitehead]

Good pose and HA, Joe. BG works well. I think you may have increased the exposure a little too much as there are a lot of clipped areas. A slight crop from top left and below to reduce the amount of foliage and decentre the bird is an option and I would burn in the foliage and twigs to make them a little less eye catching.

[Gloria Hopkins]

This is really a gorgeous composition. I love all the lower-left-to-upper-right lines. And poses don't get much better than that. Also, the grey background is *perfect.* And I love the green leaves near the bird (how they might cover the blunt end of the stick. )

The only negative I can find is a few hot spots on the branches. But not too much. Bird dead-center here would have been my choice as well. If you're going to crop anything, I'd crop the gold leaves in the lower right. That cleans up the image for me.

[Joe Brown]

Good pose and HA, Joe. BG works well. I think you may have increased the exposure a little too much as there are a lot of clipped areas. A slight crop from top left and below to reduce the amount of foliage and decentre the bird is an option and I would burn in the foliage and twigs to make them a little less eye catching.

Thanks very much Tony for the valuable feedback. With your suggestions in mind I've redone the image as follows. Is this what you had in mind?

http://www.joebrownphotography.net/LHS2.jpghttp://www.joebrownphotography.net/images/LHS2.jpg

Joe

[Joe Brown]

This is really a gorgeous composition. I love all the lower-left-to-upper-right lines. And poses don't get much better than that. Also, the grey background is *perfect.* And I love the green leaves near the bird (how they might cover the blunt end of the stick. )

The only negative I can find is a few hot spots on the branches. But not too much. Bird dead-center here would have been my choice as well. If you're going to crop anything, I'd crop the gold leaves in the lower right. That cleans up the image for me.

Thanks very much for your comments Gloria. Hopefully I successfully addressed the your issues in my repost above.

Joe

[Gloria Hopkins]

Yep! Perfect for me. But somehow you've zapped the intensity of the warm hues in the leaves. The golds and yellows are intense in the first image and very muted in the update. Thanks, and best of luck! G

[Tony Whitehead]

Repost is a step in the right direction, Joe. Crop wise I was thinking along these lines to place the bird highish in the image as I always think of shrikes sitting high and scanning for prey. You could be a little gentler on the perch burning as they have gone noticeably grey.