Theme: Galahs in breeding mode

[Paul Randall]

Galah (Cacatua roseicapilla)
Little River, VIC, Australia

These two were checking out hollows in a dead tree that hangs over Little River in Melbournes outer west. They were quick to see off another pair of the same species that came to check another hollow in the same tree.
All comments,critique, reposts welcome

Canon 5D 600mm f4 L (non IS) + 1.4 TC, iso 640 1/800th f10 CW metering +1/3, tripod mounted
Photoshop- slight sharpen of both faces, slightly darkened bright sky BG, slight s/h adjustment

[Joe Senzatimore]

A beautiful species. TFS. I think overall the image seems a bit flat and might benifit by some added contrast. Do love the composition and the pose both birds provided.

[Leo Berzins]

Nicely composed Paul, but I agree with Joe that it seems a little flat.
The texture of the tree trunk is a work of art in itself.

[Phil Ertel]

Nice looking birds. I like that you can clearly see both eyes. I also like the perch as it has a lot of character. The images seems a bit bright to me with the light coming from our left. I bid a bit of non-distructive dodging and burning, used a color layer to blend the color of the perch. I also increased the vibrance a little and darken the sky some. The last thing I did was to add a few points of blacks to the neutral and blacks in selective color layer. I'll leave it up to you if you think it enhanced your image. Thanks for sharing.

[Paul Randall]

Thanks for the comments:S3: Image was taken in overcast/cloudy skies which accounts for the fairly flat look of the image. Flash could possibly have helped in this situation.
I like the extra punch in the colours of the repost Phil but feel the added black/contrast is a tiny bit too much. Others might disagree, either way thanks for taking the time to repost:S3: