Raiders of the sunflower patch

[shane shacaluga]

Not sure if this is where this pic should go but here goes

Was driving across a sunflower plantation on Sunday morning and a huge flock of wood pigeons was raiding the dried sunflowers. I was shooting out of the opposite window and for these birds I had the sun in my face. i wasnt sure whether to bother but thought of trying a silhouette tyoe shot I have seen on this forum before

D7000
300f4 + 1.7x TC
f7,1
1/1000
ISO 800

-2 on the exposure in ACR and increased contrast and blacks with selective colour
Cloned out a lot of clipped birds around the frame

This is new for me so any comments and critiques are most welcome

Thanks

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I think it turned out very well. You have managed almost a clean border, and I like the bit of colour in the LRC. Nice silhouetted image of the birds.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Shane, I like the graphic look that you got. I think you did a good job with the spacing of the birds and cleaning up the borders. I don't mind the bird whose wing is outside of the frame on the right edge since it is flying in that direction. I hope we see more of your work here

[Nancy Bell]

Good OOTB thinking to make this into a silhouette! You can see enough details of the birds to know immediately they are pigeons and I like looking at all the different postures they have as they fly. The fact that they are all heading the same direction gives a nice flow to the image. Your white & brownish bkgd adds a lot of interest to the composition. Let's see more!

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks, I need to do a bit more of this type of photography. Let's see what I can come up with ;)