American Robin

[Geoffrey Montagu]

American Robin taking advantage of abundant Honeysuckle berries still remaining this past December. I did a bit of iris correction using Cs6 custom exposure +1.8, offset -0.0328, gamma correction 0.88. All C&C welcome.

D3s, Nikon 500mm + 1.4x tc, Gitzo series 5 tripod, Wimberley Gimbal Head.

Geoffrey

[Loi Nguyen]

Nice and sharp, good colors. The BG is a bit busy and too bad about the branch that blocks the bird. TFS. Loi

[Geoffrey Montagu]

PS. Rest of EXIF is 1/500, f5.6, ISO 500.

Geoffrey

[gail bisson]

Love the light, the pose and the berries.
Could you have moved to your left to bet the tree trunk out of the way? The tree tends to overwhelm the robin.
The IQ is really good on this image.
Gail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Loi and Gail. If I had moved to my left I would have encountered another tree in BG and several other Honeysuckle branches in foreground.

Geoffrey

[Mike Milicia]

The image design here with the wonderful curved branches echoing the curved pose of the bird, the red berries, the vertical comp, the bird perfectly parallel, the nice light and great IQ would all add up to one amazing image ... except for that tree!!!
As much as I hate to say it, IMO, the tree kills most of the potential here. But if you can imagine this without the tree, it would be one very sweet image ... hate when that happens but it's what keeps me going back out there.

All that said, I think it could still be improved by lightening it overall about 1/3 stop and moving the bird a tad to the left to emphasize the diagonal flow of the branch well as the curves.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Mike. I sure can imagine it without the tree. Here is a repost about 1/3 stop increase and a bit off the left side. I agree it's improved…. also feel so lucky to be out there capturing images every day.

[Diane Miller]

This is so drop-dead gorgeous! I'd try to clone over that OOF trunk. Doesn't look like it would be impossible if done carefully.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks very much Diane. I'll give your suggestion consideration. Thanks for the vote of confidence too.

Geoffrey

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Absolutely beautiful! The tree does not bug me too much but a larger aperture would have been handy to blur it a little more if really needed (although I reckon you probably were already on max aperture considering the stop or two that you've sacrificed by using the TC).

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree about the tree, but I love the thin curving fruit perch!! The robin's pose is neat too. The brighter repost looks better.