E. Bluebird

Taken last Sunday in at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln MA.
There was a Cooper's Hawk around so the birds were very
frightened and difficult to approach. This is quite large crop.
CC appreciated.

Nikon D80 300mm+TC1.4 Matrix AP-2/3 f/5.6 1/1600 ISO400

Ilija, I like the pose, together with the soft light and colours. Comp Wise, I can see why you left the LHS as is, so as not to cut off the leaf. Unfortunately doing that, the bird is too central. Im not sure if you cropped off the left through the leaf, if it would look ok. Pity the sunflower wasnt in full bloom.

Hi Ilija,
I really like the colour contrast of the blues and reds of the bird against the yellows and greens of the flower and background. Agree that there is something that disturbs about the comp, but think that the way to resolve it is to add a little more background on the left side - having the bird/subject centered is not an issue for me. Love that sunflower!

Gerald

This is an excellent 'seasonal' capture of one of my favorite birds, llija.
Exposure and color rendition are excellent.
I presume it was a breezy day, what with the fluttering feathers.
I think you did well crop-wise. Although the bird is somewhat centered, the fact that it is in the vertical quadrant mitigates, to my eye, any negative visual impact.
That said, if you were so inclined, you could try to pull the image down, to advance the bird higher, and show more of the sunflower stalk.
To me, the decaying of the flower is almost as much the 'story' of your image, as is the bluebird.
So revealing more of it could be seen as a plus.

Striking shot Ilija, and some good suggestions made to enhance further. Accepting the established view is a portrait crop, thinking of that L/H flower and that there may be more canvas, another option might be a landscape crop with the use of negative space for the R/H side. Cheers anyway, Dave

Thank you so much for the comment. I'm glad you like the flower, I had 2nd thoughts about it.
I will try different crops with other images of this that I have, with more of the flower. I will try horizontal too.

Thanks again.

The pose ias great and the soft light really makes it stand out.

Ilija, The image has a really nice feel to it w/ the dying sunflower and the beautiful BG color. The bird is sharp and well exposed w/ a nice HA.

I like it. Because you were relatively far from the bird the f/5.6 aperture was enough to cover both the bird and the flower. I am fine with the COMP.

I like the "change of season" feel of this one that the dried flowers bring. This held up well to the crop you mentioned. LH flower seems like it could be easily removed if you're so inclined and David's suggestion of a horizontal crop is worth exploring for another option. I like the image as posted.

Thank you for the CC, appreciated very much.