white Winged Dove on Prickly Pear Cactus

Canon 40D
Canon 400mm5.6L
on tripod
spot metering
AV
ISO200
F8
1/500
The softness around the edges is from shooting thru a desert bush close to the camera. Found an openning to get the Dove sharp.

The right side softness doesn't bother me. My attention is drawn to her eye. Beautiful exposure and color. Very nice capture.

I personally don't really like the OOF see-through stuff at right. Was there no way to move slightly left to rid of that?...it would have also moved the distracting flower a bit more out of the way. These doves are beautiful, and you even got some of the iridescence showing off the neck. You could brighten the eye/face area a bit though.

I think Daniel gave an excellent critique here. The OOF stuff detracts from the image for me too. A little more light on the head would help focus attention on the bird's head; remember that the bird is competing with the beautiful cactus flowers for the viewer's attention.

I sort of like it but would like to see the face a bit brighter.

Hi Tom!

I love the colors here! The greens, yellows and violets are repeated in the cactus, the flowers, the bird (and neck) and even in the background. It is only the stick that seems out of place to me, plus it seems just as dominating as the bird. Perhaps try to evict it, or try a different crop?

Thanks for all the comments and ideas. I like the idea of cropping out the cactus skeleton. This posting doesn't allow you to see the head as lit and sharp as it is. I thought this could be a bit busy, but the birds head and eye just drew me in, at least in the printed image. I'll try some ideas in PS