Great-spotted woodpecker

[P-A. Fortin]

While waiting for my knee surgery, I have some time to finally process images taken over the last year.

This one was shot while in UK for work. Alot of people would use their weekend to visit London and have a good beer in a pub, some weirdos prefer to crawl in the mud to take images of birds.

Canon 7D, 500mm IS I, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/500. Setup and attracted with suet, hide. Fill flash (Can't find the info in Exif data, but EV would normally be -2, unless I was drunk, which is unlikely since I skipped the London/pub part of the trip...).

[P-A. Fortin]

And for some reason, I saved the image _before_ the sharpening ... If a mod has any way to fix this....

Here's what it should have looked like

[David Salem]

Well, the re-post handled that part of my critique. Sharpness looks perfect . Overall a really great frame with a beautiful pose showing lots of color and I love the feet and the nice smooth green background. Just the right amount of perch showing too. If anything, maybe a little bit more room to the left and below for the virtual tail. Very well done P.A.

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice pose and HA with good details, I agree with leaving more room in the btm for virtual tail.

[Richard Flack]

Super photograph! Repost is picture perfect. Agree with leaving more room at the bottom, and I would be tempted to give more to the left as well. Well done and thanks for sharing

[Ritesh Nangare]

Awesome Light , details with stunning BG ,....
Little Bit room all over will be preferable IMO......

[Bill Dix]

Great pose, good bg and perch. Really shows his undertail color. I'd make him a little smaller in the frame all around, or at least left and bottom, and remove the tiny flash catchlight. Otherwise a very handsome frame.

[P-A. Fortin]

Thanks for the comments all.

About the tail, sadly this is the full-frame image. So adding to the bottom would require some funky processing. I was setup for an Eurasian Nuthatch (obviously smaller) when this fella arrived out of nowhere. So I tried my best to fit it in the frame.

It's in situations like this that I miss my old zoom lens!