Bohemian Waxwing

[Thomas Herou]

A waxwing from January.
Pentax K10D,F-300/4,5 IFED
1/125s, f/5,6, ISO 400

[Axel Hildebrandt]

These waxwings are beautiful. I like the pose and exposure control. It looks a tad oversharpened and the reflection of the house in the eye is not ideal, either. Maybe some fill flash would have helped. The BG is quite busy but I don't think you could have done anything about it.

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks Axel!I think fill-flashes makes even uglier refections in the eye.I don't like the tiny bright spot it makes,it looks like a stuffed and lifeless bird.But that's just my opinion.I like pictures with life and vibrance.Better an intresting not-so-sharp picture than a razorsharp "dead" one.

[Robert Amoruso]

Thomas,

I think your lighting is fine and fill-flash was not needed. If you wanted to, you could reduce the distracting reflection in the eye but the bird is so beautiful it is not a big problem for me. Though the background is distracting you did well by minimizing it and the colors in the BG do contrast well with the bird.

[Todd Frost]

Nice image of a beautiful bird. As far as the bg, it does not bother me as it is oof. I know the common opinion here so many times is "the bg is to busy or cluttered". I understand that and while I do agree, I also rationalize the fact that you either make an image as presented or you wish you were elsewhere (Texas, Florida as well as others) that give more opps with clean bgs. In the PNW stuff just grows to fast! Anyway I like you image as is.
Todd

[geothomas]

The bird is so beautiful, I can't take my eye off of it to even notice the BG. Superb detail and coloring.

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks everyone!
I'm not disturbed by a messy BG either if it suits the feeling of the picture.It all depends on the occasion and the amount of blur in my poinion.

[Raymond Barlow]

very nice image as presented, I wouldn't change a thing, and I fully agree with no flash.

[Hernan Peyras]

Beautiful capture!! Great colors and detail!