Playing hide and seek!!

[prasanna av]

Had been waiting patiently for this beauty to come up and pose, but it was playing
hide and seek with me.
Common sandpiper. Nikon D4, Nikkor 500 mm f4+ 1.4 TC.
ISO 1600, f8, 1/1600, Exp bias 0, AV priority. on Tripod.
Cropped for compo. sharpened locally, NR applied to BG [ Natural BG]
Critiques are very welcome.

[Diane Miller]

Interesting and unique view. What would you think about cropping some off the top?

[prasanna av]

Thanks a lot Diane. Actually I thought the compo was very tight in the first place. Don't know as I like a lot of breathing space around my birds. will try it though!!

[Diane Miller]

It is tight (but not too much for me), but there is disproportionally more space on top, and nothing is happening there.

Cropping from the top moves the eye to the magic 1/3 line, even though it isn't in one of the "power points."

[prasanna av]

Diane, Is this fine???

[Diane Miller]

I'd take off even a little more, but that may just be me.

My thinking would be to balance the amount of space occupied by the OOF area in front of the bird (average the uneven edge) with the BG above its head.

That makes the face a lot more prominent.

Move the scroll bar here for a quick preview.

[PhilCook]

Lovely soft light and super smooth backdrop and nice head angle as well.
No I dont think it's too tight especially for a close up portrait comp, but I think the way it sits in the frame could be improved. Agree with Dianes crop suggestion from the top, but I see in your re post in frame #5 you have also cropped more from the left. I would suggest the crop from the top as being good, but not to remove from the left...as below possibly and maybe a tiny bit more sharpen on the head

[Tom Rambaut]

Great head angle - it's very engaging. Nice detail in the bird feathers. I have tried this sort of thing before - bird sort of hiding behind a prominent foreground - and I think its' hard to get right. I think the cropping is an issue but for me the foreground is too prominent. It is similar in colour to the bird and I'm not sure if that helps. The one colour background seems to accentuate the foreground.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Phil's repost is just about right, but in every version the FG is just too much IMO. It does play well with the "peek-a-boo" story and I'm sure it is more poignant for you as you were the one interacting with the bird. Had it been vallying instead of peaking perhaps it would have been better. The sandpiper looks good though, perhaps a bit grainy due to crop, but it has a neat "playful" look to it.