Loggerhead Shrike in the rain

[SteveYoung]

Loggerhead Shrike, pretty rare around here in Portland. This one was cooperative and let me get quite a few nice shots.



Canon 1D IV
600mm
F8
1/400
ISO 800
Manual, EV metering, Handheld

NR, sharpening, curves, a little saturation bump, dodged the eye a bit and cloned out some extra twigs.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the pose and how the bird is standing at the end of the perch, nice background with rain drop as an environment. Nice fluffy feather you have here. I might crop off the top a bit and consider sharpen a bit more for web presentation.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a very nice image, and I love seeing the raindrops so clearly. Agree with cropping and a little more sharpening. Here is my thinking with a new crop and a little more sharpening. My crop was with the purpose of taking the bird out of the middle of the image.

[SteveYoung]

Thanks for the input. I don't agree with the image needing more sharpening; in my opinion many if not most images I see here are over-sharpened. I've been using Topaz for sharpening because I think the results look much more natural than the harsh, artificial look of USM and I wonder if people around here are just used to the way USM looks? I like the crop suggestion, though, and I had played around with a tighter crop.

[dankearl]

Steve,
congrats on getting this, I have not seen one here (Portland).
Marina's crop works much better and while you might not think it needed sharpening, the eye and bill
certainly did. They are soft in the OP.
I would re think what you consider over sharpened IMO.

[SteveYoung]

Steve,
congrats on getting this, I have not seen one here (Portland).
Marina's crop works much better and while you might not think it needed sharpening, the eye and bill
certainly did. They are soft in the OP.
I would re think what you consider over sharpened IMO.

Again, I appreciate the the criticism even if I don't agree. I'll take it into consideration. I mean, the reason I post pics here occasionally is to get different responses than I do from friends and such. As for the Loggerhead, this one is still, as of yesterday afternoon, hanging out in Hillsboro. You should check it out if you get the chance!