Pied wagtail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hand held Canon 1DX Canon 100-400L 11 Auto ISO 640 + 1.3, 1/1600 sec f5.6
This was a tricky little fella to catch!
All C&C welcome.

[Bill Nuttall]

Attractive image Jonathan, typical "running around" looking for grubs to feed it's young pose. As you say they are always moving, either the tail twitches or the body is on the go.
I live in SW France and we do not see the UK Pied Wagtail ……. which I believe is a sub-species of the White Wagtail, (Motacilla alba), the Pied being named M.alba. yarrellii. The Whites look similar in the head and breast but they are grey on top whereas the Pied's are dark, (black).
All these Grey, White, Pied and Yellow Wagtail descriptions can get confusing.

Just a question re crop sizes …….. I have always worked to the constrained normal, well used "standard" sizes ……… I notice on this forum, "unconstrained" crops see quite popular ……. are there any standard "rules" re sizes and cropping? …….. as i say I have always used the usual sizes …… something I obviously need to re-think

Thanks for your help and comments on my recent shots

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent pose, nice, low angle shooting, Jon. The pano crop in this case might not be the best option IMO.

[Ian Wilson]

I like the composition which works for me in this case - an interesting experiment. I would like to see the pano with a little tighter crop, some off the bottom and vertical edges, to bring out a few more details in the bird. Regards, Ian

[Jonathan Ashton]

Bill in certain competitions the required size is 4:3 or 3:4 but even then you can place an image of your own ratio and make the background 4:3. I went for this shape purely because it was a rather large crop and I wasn't sure about going much tighter as the quality could suffer.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great little image Jonathan. Love it! What I would consider is levelling the frame, just looks a little tilted. If that's the right orientation, so be it, it just does not appear "right" if you know what i mean.

Well done mate!

[Mike Hitchen]

I really like this one and think the crop really suits the subject. The depth of field adds a sort of 'runing track' for the bird - smart move :)

[Lorant Voros]

Cool running pose and your pano crop works well here. I'd level the frame as well and would go a little tighter. Well done, Jon.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much everyone. The orientation or levelling is true. The image was taken at a golf course .