Scissor-tail

[Dan Walker]

Found a pair of these that have been pretty cooperative the past few days. Have lots of shots of them but this one has the best combination of light, perch, head angle and clean background (though they could all improve). Will be out again for the next several days to try to get a better one, so any suggestions?

Not sure about crop, how do you compose for something that its tail takes up 2x more room than body?

Cloned out some branches under tail

Nikon D80, 300F4 x 1.4, 1/500 f5.6 ISO 320, fill flash @ -0.7

Comments/critiques appreciated

Thanks

Dan

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird, setting and BG. It looks a bit soft on my monitor and I would give it a bit more space at the bottom.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hello Dan,

What a lovely looking bird. You did an excellent job with the exposure and details. I wish to see more of the perch but that's about it for me!

[Gayle Clement]

Beautiful. I tried to photograph these last week but could never get them off the telephone wires. Just a little more room below is needed.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful bird, perch, and BG Dan! The problem I struggle with when I process scissor-tail pics is how to accommodate the long tail in the crop. The photos look out of balance to me. This one is no exception, but I don't have an easy solution. I'm interested in what other BPN members have to say about cropping images like this.

[Glenn Bartley]

Just gorgeous. I love the Bg and the crop is perfect for this species.

[Blake Shadle]

Dan, I would say add a little more room at the bottom and that's it! Very well done. You've isolated your subject and created a clean background, you have a nice perch that doesn't over power your subject. There's not much room for improvement for next time ;)

[Dan Walker]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions!