Female Bobolink

[Charles Daigle]

I heard the wonderful sound of the bobolink yesterday and I had to give chase. I sat in the farmers field waiting patiently for the female to approach me. Finally, she did and I was able to snap a few. Here is one of my favorites.

I usually like to compose with the bird looking into an empty space (the BG), but I find in this case, I like the bird looking this way. What do you all think?

Canon 7D
300/2.8IS
2xII
f8
ISO800
1/1600
-0.3eV
Handheld

Thanks for looking!

[Maya Raut]

Nice and sharp capture. Exposure, BG looks good to me. I would have loved to see a pose where we can see more than just the frontal view of bird and also I would try a vertical crop for this image.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the comp as is, but yes it would have been even better had the gal looked the other way. I still find it balnaced though with the perch curving to the right. I'm OK with the frontal pose because some of the tail is visible (I find frontal poses awkward when the tail is fully hidden) Great perch and background. I would eliminate the bright OOF grass.

[Charles Daigle]

Maya, thank you so much for commenting. I actually have many different poses of this same female on this same twig and other twigs. What is the best way to post those? Do I just add them in this thread, or start another one?

Daniel. Thanks again for looking. I really appreciate the time you take to comment on my threads. I liked this pose since I did see the tail, and she was starting to open her wings to fly away. Same question I asked Maya I guess, should I start another thread with the new image? Or just add here?

[jack williamson]

Nice image Charles, looks ok to me looking out of the frame. Different images need to be posted with a new thread, there is a limit of one image per 24 hrs. You can make adjustments to this image and repost this one in this thread.

Jack

[Sidharth Kodikal]

I love the light, the clean bg and the nice natural perch.
The details are superb and the pose with the open bill is nice and dynamic.
Very nice image.

[PhilCook]

Seems to work without the extra space on the left with the plant stem balancing the composition, background in nice and free from distractions and the birds head is sharp as it needs to be.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Start a new thread for another pose.

Very interesting shot with the bird looking the other way. I think it works as you have left some space there and those two leaves add interest on that side. Lots of things to like here. Your DOF coverage is very good...good call on the f-stop. Excellent alert calling pose and clean BG. Some selective noise reduction on the background will improve this a lot.

[Charles Daigle]

Thanks all for the clarification on the "diferent image" topic. I didn't know, and I've done it a few times before with not so good results :D

I've taken the time and your advice and cropped the image the "normal way". I think it's a stronger image now. I also ran another round of NR on the BG.

Here it is: