Magpie

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm F4 L IS bean bag ISO 500 -0.3 1/2000 f5.6

I took this shot from my new garden hide, suet seeds and peanuts were used as bait in holes drilled in the branch.

All C & C welcome.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Jonathan,

I like the sharpness of the bird, the positioning on the perch, and the subtle blues in the feathering. Although the whites look good, the rest of the image looks a bit under-exposed. Also, IMHO the face and bill could use a bit of cleaning up, and I think it's a bit over-sharpened.

Richard.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Tough image to compose with the long tail. I'd prefer a bit more room at left and bottom. A better HA would have been nice, but with the light angle you had this would have surely cast the face into shadow so you would have been better to move to your left and wait from there. Lastly, a better perch would be great...one that isn't snapped off at the top. Great BG though, and the exposure is good despite the strong light (but some fill would have helped with the blacks and shadows). I'm sure these guys appreciate the offered snacks so you'll get lots of ops to make even better images!:S3:

[Arthur Morris]

Jon, You need to go perch hunting and you need to consider where the sun will be at various times of day. Sharp with a nice BKGR but the large perch with the broken end is an image killer.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated and I agree with your comments. The perch is really for the woodpecker and I have drilled holes in the sides for suet & nuts etc. The top of the perch is a bit manky but hopefully you will like following images with birds in portrait format. The background is an OOF willow tree.

[Craig Brelsford]

You're getting close, Jon; that BG is good. But I have to agree with what Artie et al. are saying about your perch. You're in control of the situation there; try to see what the perfect perch would look like, and go make it. I also applaud you for shooting a magpie. Many of us wouldn't deign to shoot such a common bird. The black-and-white magpie also happens to be a bird difficult to photograph.

[Karl Egressy]

It looks like you had to deal with some harsh light condition.
Using fill flash would have been a good option.
Also since it is a setup, a better looking perch as it was mentioned before, would
improve the image.

[Mital Patel]

what an awesome compo and light. razor sharp.