Hiding in the nest...

Female Northern Flicker coming home....
D500, 300mm, f4, 1/5000, iso800

Talonsbp.jpg

love the pose, a bit angled away from you but the look back saves it, this BG looks much better than the other one. highlights on the tree bark are a bit strong and looks a bit over sharpened in that area. love the spot light effect.

I am going to be honest I am not sure about your new processing flow, it looks a bit crunchy and contrasty to my eye compared to what you were posting before. The feathers look like smoothed out with heavy NR, aka the watercolor painting effect. kind of looks like an in-camera JPEG to be honest.... I am sure the raw is solid. I understand you don't want to spend the time processing with the usual sw but that's part of the patience and work that asperates craft form a hobby and avian photo from a birding shot. anyways too much talk, whatever you enjoy makes your day at the end :cheers:

Thanks Arash, I really appreciate the thoughtful critique..While I understand my processing without photoshop (not my call, a technical problem that I hope a new generation
Apple software can fix), is not perfect, I think it is mainly that I don't care anymore to image easy subjects..
These Flicker shots were take at a nest site that was accessible but generally had bad light but great and interesting subjects which put up with me..
This one was low iso but most were not and catching them flying in and out of the nest made for extremely challenging photography...I think this looks fine, there was no NR on the bird but
it is contrasty because the scene, with the large bare trunk in dark woods, is contrasty..

what's the problem with Apple sw you are experiencing ?

Nice approach image Dan! the wings down position is great, I agree the head looking back saves this one for me. I am also curious about the Apple issue you're having?

Thanks for the comments.
I have some kind of bug in my Mac, the Adobe file got corrupted and PS will not work or load.
The Adobe guys got into my computer and could not fix so I just live without PS until a new operating system
for Apple is out.
I can run anything else. It is just one of those computer mysteries,,,

Excellent wings-down pose. I think my favorite parts are the claws of the bird inside the hole showing, and the shadow on the trunk. Bummer about the technical issues...I'm far form a technical expert, so I just hope things run well every day!

Tough to get for sure. Good luck with the computer.