Black Vulture

[Ian Cassell]

Another pretty birdie from the Phoenix Zoo

Canon 7D
Sigma 100-300mm EX f/4 @ 164mm

1/640sec f/4 ISO 160

S/H in CS5, Sharpening in GF6/CS5

[Chris Martinez]

Looks like you just missed the focus on this one. The tip of the bill and neck are sharp but the eye is a bit soft.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the texture around the head and the wind blown feather in this one. Agree about missing the focus. Also I feel the angle is a bit steep, might be result from the top of the head seem softer than the rest.

[Bill Dix]

Pretty bird. I might have shifted the bird down in the frame just a bit, to put the eye on the ROT intersection. Focus problem might be partly a DOF issue. I find that with a bird really close to me, I need a smaller aperture to get him all in focus; and with a stationary bird and blue sky BG you didn't have any motion or background to worry about, and could have traded some SS for a smaller aperture.

[Bob Miller]

I agree with Bill on this one....more aperture!. Also keeping the plane of the camera sensor parallel to the eye would have helped here...angle does look too steep!

[Ian Cassell]

Thank you everyone. As you can imagine, with a caged bird, my vantage point was pretty controlled. I do agree that a smaller aperture would have helped significantly.