These cute birds often perch on top of blades of grass, but I liked the perch it chose this time. This one stayed put for around a minute or so whilst I took a number of shots with various head angles and body positions. I finally settled on this one to post.
7Dii, 100-400@400mm, 1/500th sec, f5.6, iso640, AV mode HH. Cheers.
One of your best Paul and I don't mind the head angle. Nice perch, light, bg and detail. I suspect it is a Little Grassbird. https://ebird.org/species/litgra1
Very nice one Paul!
Especially the perch is exceptional, the symmetry and the detail of the small seeds is beautiful. Nice that you can see the whole feet and legs on such a busy perch too. Furthermore you got a nice pose, good head angle and a nice background. Details and exposure looks good, maybe a tad dark. I would increase the brightness on the head by 2 or 3 points.
I would also take some off the top as it feels very empty and compensate that by adding more space on each side (if you have it). The image looks a little bit cold, might just warm it and see how it looks.
One of your best shots Paul!
Love love the perch and agree completely with Ivan's suggestions re" too much space above and brightening image very slightly".
Really. ice image- Congrats!
Gail
A very strong frame as others have said! The red bits on the perch are great. I might globally lift the exposure a touch and add a touch of sharpening and/or additional light on the perfectly-tilted head to draw our attention in a bit more. But an excellent result regardless!
Thank you all so much for the kind feedback and suggestions.
Firstly to Colin: Thank you for correcting the name of the bird...yes, it's a Little Grassbird not a Cisticola.
Following the suggestions from Ivan and Dorian I decided to trim the top but leave the sides. I then added some global brightness to the image followed by some dodging and burning.