Calif State Bird at Sunset

[Bill Holsten]

Photographed in my backyard (Rancho Santa Fe) 4 days ago. This male California Quail was sitting on a fence post, standing guard over his flock which were munching my lawn.

1D Mark IV, 300mm+2X, ISO 400, f/10, 1/400"

I probably could have squeezed out a bit more DOF at the expense of shutter speed and gotten the tail more in focus.

C&C welcome,
Bill

[allanrube]

While I would have liked the quail to be on a natural perch you have a great image here. I like the colors and sharpness of the bird along with the vegetation on the left. Good body and head angles.

[Yves Guillot]

Do you mind receivnig some visitors? I mean : human ones? :S3: A very beautiful bird nicely shot! If you have a better perch it would simply be awesome!

[Alan Murphy]

Love the comp, plant and BG color. Not crazy about the perch. If it was a natural weatherd fence post, this image would be over the top IMO.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Lovely shot held back only by the perch.

I would clean up the few small bits of twig/leaf on the extreme left of the frame edge.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, composition and BG. I agree with the others on a natural perch making this image even better. Well done Bill!

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and sharpness.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice image. Great pose and head angle, very nice light, great background, and great comp.
Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Absolutely stunning bird and portrait. Agreed on the perch shortcomings, but otherwise pretty much perfect. Fantastic complementary background. Maybe try to set up a good natural perch for next time it visits?

[Daniel Cadieux]

If you see this species hanging out often you could definitely decorate the perch for future use if this is a favorite of his. Otherwise avery beautiful image!

[Bill Holsten]

Thanks to all of you who commented on this image. I agree wholeheartedly with the shortcomings of the black, wrought-iron perch. I have performed major surgery on the image and the fence post is now replaced with a somewhat manufactured natural perch borrowed from another image. In the process, I moved the bird over a bit toward the right side of the frame to get a better thirds composition and cleaned up some vegetation that was exiting the left edge of the image. Unfortunately, the new perch overlaps the lower right edge of the image. Not ideal, but hopefully an improvement. If any of you are still following this thread, have a look at the repost and let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Bill

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Beautiful capture. Too bad a bout the perch