I was down at the beach a couple of weeks ago and spotted a group of juvenile red-winged blackbirds. They were pretty far away, and I've cropped them as much as I dare. I got at least a dozen BIFs and a lot of keepers. In addition to NR and levels/curves adjustments, I flipped this one horizontally so the bird is flying left to right. C&C always welcome.
Canon T1i
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens
1/1000 second, f/6.3, ISO 400
The background looks pretty good, the bird looks sharp and you have a great wing position.
I'm just not sure about the two limbs sticking up. Have you tried cloning those out? And
then maybe crop a little off the bottom to make the image more horizontal?
If you do decide to crop out the two branches, make sure to take care of that highlight
behind the second branch.
The foreground branches are a big distraction and need to be removed or try again and better control the frame. The foreground elements walk the eye into the frame and in this situation they are more controlling than your beautiful subject. What is the story here, where is the action and the eye is hung up on the twigs. Keep at it and remember a picture can be more than a subject,.. it this case it is a foreground, background and a subject too. Thanks for posting and keep em coming.
Eric. i have to agree..... the twigs are too distracting. When composing, ask yourself do these elements make my subject stronger or weaker. Try to eliminate anything that does not contribute positively to your subject. You did handle the bg well and your subject is nicely sharp....now concentrate on eliminating distractions. I look forward to seeing more of your work!
Thanx for all the comments. I thought about cloning out the twigs, but that would leave nothing but the bird in the foreground. I also thought about copying more twigs in from other shots I took; in some areas the twigs were denser and more bush-like. Or, I could move the bird into this photo (I like the bird in the first photo, and the twigs in the second).
Juvenile Red-Winged Blackbird
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