I was photographing ducks when this beauty landed right in front of me on this pretty branch in nice light and with a great background. How often does that happen? All I did was spot meter on the bird's head, dial down my exposure and fired off a few shots before he resumed hunting for bugs.
Hi Grace, exquisite light, and the little guy perched nicely to show off his plumage and colours. Killer BG, and the more you shoot, the luckier you get.
OK, so I am gonna be the "bad guy or girl"
Light, comp,BG, comp and IQ are excellent.Love that sharp clear eye!
I wish the perch was smaller in diameter. It overwhelms the bird a bit IMHO,
Gail
Thanks to all who commented. Gail, no need to consider yourself the "bad guy". Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I realized when I posted this that the size of the perch breaks the "rules" that seem to have evolved here on BPN and in avian photography in general. Most of the beautiful images that we aspire to are set ups and everything is indeed "perfectly" proportioned from the perch to the color palette. We have become trained to see things in certain ways. As many of you know, I don't do setups. Why? Simple....they just aren't my style. That's not how I like to spend my limited photography time. I like to get out, hike around, and see what I can find happening naturally. My immediate thought when I reviewed this image was "Is the perch too big" ? (Those pesky rules again) The more I looked at it, the more I like the image in its entirety as the branch itself is clean and not bright (I did not burn it or do any adjustments to it) and also, it is adorned with those wonderful lichens, which to my eye are part of the image. Also the bird is relatively large in the frame and I felt like the image could handle this perch. Feel free to disagree....everyone sees things their own way as we should, but we also need to be careful not to overlook some fine images in our files just because something may not quite conform. (I refer you to Daniel's silouette gull from a few days ago with the dangling foot and the beautiful redstart in the rain posted today with an unconventional head angle as examples).
Don't you love it when that happens. Everything falls in place just when you have lovely light. Great pose, bg. The fact that the perch has a lot of interest to it helps to mitigate its slight oversize, IMHO. And as you so well suggest, the "rules" are made to be broken.
And another fine phoebe photo that is! I love the profile pose, good light, and oh so sweet BG. Do I wish the perch was a bit thinner? Sure. Do I wish this image was in my files? Indeed! If anything I'd consider a tiny crop just to hide the black "hole" in the branch at right edge, or perhaps filling it via processing.
Well done, and I appreciate your take in your reply above (although I highly enjoy setups).
Eastern Phoebe
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