Vermillion

[Stan Cunningham]

I'm going to give the poor folks in Mammals a break and quit posting bears for a day or 2 any way.
Took this one this spring,
Canon 7D, 100 -400 5.6 L, HH
F 8 1/1000 ISO 400
San Pedro River, SE AZ
Post processing included a crop, brought out some of the greens a tad in the BG, and removed some branches.
I like his eye a lot, but wish I had my 500 F4 that day, as I would have liked to be closer. Oh well.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Stan, love the colors and HA. Might add another layer of mild sharpening - how large was the crop. On balance I think you did well with the 100-400. Might move the bird out of middle, try a rule of thirds angle. I agree the 500MM f/4 would have been strong on this shot. Not sure about the reds, I desaturated them a bit my Mac,..let's see what others say. Nice moment, what a beautiful species.

[laurie golden]

Stan,

Very nice bird. I like the crest and the alert look in your direction. Can you crop it so that the bird is on the left of the photo? I think this may improve the comp.

[Ian Cassell]

Very nice and I almost always seem to get them at a distance. The reds, in my book, are right on -- they look oversaturated in real life! I agree with trying to move him out of the middle of the frame.

[Kerry Perkins]

Stan, I agree that the reds are fine in this image - no problems at all. I do think that the composition could be better and moving the bird to the left is the best improvement I can think of. Cropping away the leaves on the left would be a good idea IMO. The background is quite nice, I would evict the branch that is directly below the bird.

[Stan Cunningham]

98731Thanks for the comments so far. I actually did de saturate the reds just a bit, and you are right Ian, this is May breeding plumage and that's how bright they are but I can see why the comment was made.
I will move him to the left, the only reason I had him in the middle is my personal preference of showing some of the habitat; thus the cottonwood leaves. But I realize it might benefit artistically from the move.
I will try another round of sharpening before I post on the web, but the tiff file is tack and I'd rather not touch it again. But it's slightly soft here.
Stan

[Stan Cunningham]

try to post the recrop again.

[Christopher Moses]

Im no expert, but for me this is a little too far to the left- either that or theres too much empty space above the bird (or both). But I love the pose and the twinkle in the birds eye, as well as the background.... But as I say I'm no expert :S3: