Female Baltimore Oriole and Nesting Material

[Daniel Grossi]

I rarely see these birds so low to the ground. She came down briefly for some nesting material and disappeared in the tree tops.

D500
Nikkor 600mm f/4e FL
1/800
f/5.6
ISO-400
Center Weight Average

Cleveland, Ohio
May 2017
Warm, partly sunny a few hours after sunrise.

[gail bisson]

Hi Daniel,
I like the behavior shown. Tack sharp and excellent exposure.I
like the top-side view.
The BG is a bit distracting. I would like to see this as a vertical if you have enough pixels to not affect the IQ.
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty cool behaviour you got here. Great back view and good head angle for that pose. Although I am OK with the horizontal comp, I do agree that the BG is distracting. I do realize it can be impossible at times to move around to get a better BG for a particular situation, especially one that does not last long, but it is something to think about.

[Daniel Grossi]

Hi Daniel,
I like the behavior shown. Tack sharp and excellent exposure.I
like the top-side view.
The BG is a bit distracting. I would like to see this as a vertical if you have enough pixels to not affect the IQ.
Gail

Thanks Gail! I'll revisit this one in LR and see what a vertical perspective would do to it. I like to use a lot of dead space which is why I kept it like this - I need to start mixing things up however.

[Daniel Grossi]

Pretty cool behaviour you got here. Great back view and good head angle for that pose. Although I am OK with the horizontal comp, I do agree that the BG is distracting. I do realize it can be impossible at times to move around to get a better BG for a particular situation, especially one that does not last long, but it is something to think about.

Thanks Daniel! I probably could have looked for a better BG, but like you said, I knew my time was limited with this bird. Critique like yours and Gail's have become nearly invaluable to my learning process. I'll work hard to improve these BGs.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose, nesting material and the delicate perch but the BG is far from ideal. The bird could use a tad more sharpening

[Daniel Grossi]

I like the pose, nesting material and the delicate perch but the BG is far from ideal. The bird could use a tad more sharpening

Thanks Arash!