Black-billed Magpie

[Diane Miller]

On a recent drive through the eastern Sierra I found some nice hawks and a couple of Meadowlarks on quaint fence posts. Also found this magpie. It was facing to the right with the face in the shade, but eventually gave me the head turn I was requesting. For about half a second. I was shooting out my car window, stopped in the middle of the road (no pulloff close). After getting this I slowly pulled up to try for a better light angle, but it decided to leave.

Canon 7D2, 100-400 II at 350. ISO 800, 1/320 at f/7.1. Handheld. Early morning light and smoke from fires. BG is a pasture of brown grass. Cropped to 70% of the full frame. Into PS to darken a lighter area at the top edge and a minor dose of NR that wouldn't be noticeable in the JPEG here.

[Ross Taylor]

Hi Diane,

I love the hue and direction of the light and the background. The details on the bird are perfect!

For me, the crop feels a little tight, not profoundly so, a little more canvas on all sides but the bottom may do it.

Wish I had birds like that on the side of the road ;)

Thanks for posting this beauty, Diane!

Ross

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the sharpness, pose, light and sweet BG color. The perch is not ideal but that's where it landed. Nice image Diane!

[Grace Scalzo]

I really like the light angle and the way that the face is lit. I do wish for a more weathered perch as the brightness of this one tends to pull my eye toward it.

[gail bisson]

Beautiful light and nice pose.
Great color palette as well.
I like all the " lines" in the image ie. vertical lines in the perch and diagonal lines created by the wing feathers and tail. Quite neat!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Works for me... lovely image, Diane. Love the light, colors and composition. Thank you for sharing.

[Karl Egressy]

Lovely image in beautiful light, Diane.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! I agree abut the perch being a little too bright -- easy to tone it down with a masked Curves. The crop at the bottom was determined by a need to straighten it a bit, but I cloned in a little more perch and loosen up the crop a bit.

[Ross Taylor]

Hi Diane,

Your repost (cloning more post) and uploading it here, is very nice! Love it :)
Ross