Speckled Pigeon ( Rock Pigeon )

[Stu Bowie]

I was going through some old files from my favourite location being the Pilanesberg National Park. I quite liked the early morning light on this fellow, and of course, this shows off another great BG one has at this location. The BG is a distant mountain. There are no thin perches around the hide.

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 300mm F/2.8 +1.4 TC = 420mm
1/1600
F/5.6
ISO 800

Hand Held

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely work, Stu... beautiful interesting bird show perfectly, interesting perch, nice complimentary background. Thank you for sharing.

[Isaac Grant]

Really nice Stu. The pose, background and image quality is excellent. Love the color palette as well. I would crop this a bit differently than you did. I would make the right edge of the frame just to the left of the bend in the branch. Also would add a bit of room above and take off a little from below.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Awesome light Stu. Lovely subject with great HA.

[Stu Bowie]

Here is a repost with Isaac's suggestion.

[Bob Smith]

When I first looked at this it was at the repost and I had the feeling that I wished for a bit more space on the right side so when I looked back to the first post I got my wish. I see ( I think ) why Issac might want to get rid of the branch twist but I do like that extra space. It's wonderful how the colours of all the components of this image complement each other. A striking image Stu.

[Tim Foltz]

Stu, the OP is fine by me adds a bit of character to the image IMO. I would get rid of the distracting little nub underneath his tail though.
Great colors, details, HA and BG.

-Tim

[William Dickson]

Wonderful looking frame Stu, and what great lighting conditions you had. Beautiful detail on the bird, and lovely colours. The BG shows the bird real well. Nice work.

Will

[Glenn Pure]

Beautiful shot, Stu. Light is gorgeous and you've used it well to achieve the great tone and colour in this shot. Detail is magnificent and so is the background. I'm not keen on the composition in the original or repost though. I'd have placed the bird centrally in the horizontal and vertically placed as in your repost - if you had the frame left to do this.