Great tit portrait

[Jeroen Wijnands]

Shot about 80 minutes after sunrise. Cropped about 2/3. Some correction in exposure. Came home, looked at it and was quite surprised to see what seems to be ticks on the eye. Would have liked to have a more exotic subject but couldn't pass this little bird posing.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4412817147_2b240fd92e_b.jpg

Settings:
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
Focal Length: 302.0 mm
ISO Speed: 640

I get the impression I'm improving but suggestions are very welcome.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Sweet little bird and I know they are a real challenge to capture. The BG is busy and a tighter crop would help to eliminate some of the business as your subject is small in the frame. It appears as thought the lighting was harsh but you did well and the pose and eye contact is good.. It appears slightly soft on my monitor . Thanks for sharing and I will look forward to seeing your future posts.

[Doug Brown]

Nice eye contact and good detail in the blacks. There are a couple of areas in the whites that need to be toned down a little. The perch is busy, but the only branch that bothers me is the one that seems to be coming out of the bird's head. I would go with a tighter crop.

This image is bigger than the allowable vertical dimension of 800 pixels (the horizontal limit is 1024 pixels). One last administrative point. We like contributors to use their real names. :)