Golden-headed Cisticola

[Paul Burdett]

Up early the other day and off to one of my favourite locations...by 8am it was already 30 centigrade...not my favourite time of the year. Would welcome some cooler weather, but after all...it's our Summer, but temps have been higher than usual. Who said there's no climate change! Anyhow, I manged to snap this Cisticola in the nice early morning light.
7Dii, 100-400@340mm, 1/1250th sec, f8, iso500, HH. Comments always appreciated. Cheers.

[arash_hazeghi]

pretty bird but not the prettiest perch, I wish for a HA a bit more parallel to the back of the camera as the eye can look a bit distorted from this angle. good details will work better in vertical comp IMO

TFS

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks Arash,
Thanks you for the comments. I agree re the perch...here's another with a different HA (same perch though). I have others on a better perch, but with the background is more distracting. Thoughts?

[Aditya Sridhar]

Agreed with Arash that the first version would look better as a vertical. I think the focus is off in the repost - the eye isn't sharp and there's a bit of motion blur. Sometimes, even with a perch that's not ideal, backing up and shooting a wider perspective could work, especially if there are additional elements that can give context and add interest. Of course, you could always wait for the bird to take off and clone the perch in post. I've been in that situation way too many times than I care to admit

[Paul Burdett]

Aditya: Good points raised, thank you.

[John Mack]

I don't mind the perch. The pose on the bird is right on as is the light. Nice background to top it off.

[Paul Burdett]

Hi John. Thanks again for the kind feedback.