mountain blue bird

[Jamie Strickland]

captured in YNP last week, him and his lady appeared to have a nest in a firewood storage unit and he happened to just land right in front of me on sort of a crappy dead tree

canon 7D, 500L, F4, ISO 800, 1/500, handheld, about 50% crop as I changed it from horizontal to vertical

[John Chardine]

Beautiful soft light and BG Jamie. Perfect head angle and nice perch. The image is sharp on my monitor but I feel it might need one more round to make it pop. I would try a horizontal crop with a bit of room to the left and more room to the right. Very sweet overall!

[Arthur Morris]

I like the perch and agree on a tad more sharpening (and contrast). The bird would fit much more naturally into a horizontal frame....

[Raymond Barlow]

nice shot Jamie, sweet bg, and pose., hope to talk to you soon.

[Colin Knight]

Can we see a horizontal frame like Artie suggested?

[Jamie Strickland]

thanks for then critique, lets see if this can address all the points :)

http://www.tekkiesphoto.com/Birds/bluebirds/IMG5468-Edit/892300503_jjkHh-L.jpg

[Adams Serra]

Hi Jamie, the repost looks great.
Congratulations.

[Grace Scalzo]

Jamie, your application of the suggestions turned this into a stunner. Love it.

[Sid Garige]

Jamie,

Another vote for repost. Horizontal crop is working well.

[Colin Knight]

Works well for me too. Thanks for the repost!

[Arthur Morris]

Long low birds generally fit better in horizontal frames. Yes to the repost with a quasi-pano crop from the bottom.

[Kiran Poonacha]

The repost is a true beauty.. loved the Bird, nice perch and BG...

[Andrew Merwin]

I agree with all the above comments. I especially like the repost.
TFS
Andrew

[Fabs Forns]

We can't help but to go back, can we?
I love the repost and congrats on getting one of the elusive blue birds.
BG really complements the subject.

[Jamie Strickland]

We can't help but to go back, can we?
I love the repost and congrats on getting one of the elusive blue birds.
BG really complements the subject.

so true Fabs I am already contemplating when I am going back again.... goto the Tetons in fall like last year or winter, or spring again... or all 3 lol

thanks everyone for all the comments / suggestions and critique

[D. Robert Franz]

Hey Jamie,

Glad to see you made it home ok... This turned out great either way.. Good decision to go look for birds while everyone visited the restroom:D

[Jamie Strickland]

lol yeah I am glad he just happened to pop up where he did, I saw him go into a tree so I was looking up there and then he flew from somewhere and landed right in front of me for a few seconds and then flew off again

as I mentioned I have been trying for a while to get a good pic of one so that made my day :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Repost is waaay better Jamie. The colors are goegeous. So is sharpness, perch, head angle and light. Winner.