Blackbird

Blackbird baited at Heaton Park December 2009.

Canon 40D, Canon 100-400 @ 260mm
ISO 640
f6.3
1/500 Sec.

Small crop. Minimal processing in Elements 2. Bait cloned out.

Many thanks for your comments and observations.

Warm BG and cold feet on this one Adrian, bird looks very good and like the way the legs fade into the snow, nice kaleidoscope of colours in that bg,like this a lot.

Keith.

Bird spot on Adrian and a killer BG - just a minor pity about the feet but thats just my humble take on it. Cheers
John

Thanks John. Your opinion is valid. I took one earlier showing the feet but my preference is as in the original post and became my intention to get the legs blurred/concealed.

Now that is much better in my view. Smashing !
John

Nice combination of a colorful background and the snow on the ground. The blackbird pops. Both images are nice but I might prefer the pose on the second one.

I think the image in pane #4 is much better than the OP. With his feet standing on the soft snow (good exposure ) and his head in a more natural pose it's much easier to the eye. I may tone down the two brighter OOF weeds near the left border.

TFS

Adrian I like both shots but the second one is streets ahead in my book, the lighting, pose and detail is better.

The second image for me Adrian,I see a bit of noise in the feathers on my screen,,like the pose and detail in the FG snow.TFS.

Another vote for the repost. I like the exposure control, pose, details, BG and composition. Excellent image Adrian.

Hi Adrian , love the contrast in tone and color in both frames . You handled them both very nice in terms of exposure to get the details .

Nice work , TFS Andreas