Great spotted woodpeckre

[Jonathan Ashton]

Taken from garden hide Canon 1DX Canon 500mmf4 l IS Auto ISO 100 -0.3 1/1000 sec f5
All C&C welcome.

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

Clean, classic woodpecker shot showing their strong grip and propping tail.

Nice to have the less massive perch. Nice eye contact.

I might be tempted to crop a bit from the top, and then subtle horizontal crops to keep the image from going too square.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, lovely soft light in this, good eye contact and well exposed. The angled pose works well, and comp wise, I would just come in a little from the RHS.

[Grace Scalzo]

I find woodpeckers are hard to compose. To my eye, you have an interesting perch here which almost competes with the bird. I think that by trimming from the top, I'm less inclined to study the peeling bark and can focus on the bird. Exposure, sharpness and background are nice. I bet you have a bit more detail hiding in the top of his head.

[dankearl]

I think that the head turn toward you is so unusual and pleasing that it raises this woodpecker photo way above the usual.....

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Beautiful WP image with nice composition, great HA and pose. TFS.

[gail bisson]

The perfect HA really makes this image special.
I would take a bit off the top.
Gail

[keith mitchell]

This is nice Jonathan, agree with Gail maybe a tad off the top.

[Alan Murphy]

Excellent image. Agree with a crop to remove the OOF perch on top.

[Ashley Cohen]

Wonderful Shot Jonathan, always nice to catch a GSW perched nicely. Love the detail and sharpness on this one. Also nice branch and pose.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much everyone, a little clean up and crop as you suggest would improve the image. I am attempting to post with minimal change in accordance with international competition rules this year, I appreciate feedback especially in this case as a crop would be acceptable.

[Binu John]

Terrific shot, Jonathan! Excellent exposure, pose, HA, perch and details. Agree with the above comments regarding the crop. Well done!

[christopher galeski]

its all been said Jonathan,great shot.