She's a Laday....

[Brian Sump]

Woa, woa, woa she's a lady... You know the song.

Females in the avian kingdom often get lost but the Blue Grosbeak female has some nice plumage to share. I found her gracious to perch on this colorful rock for me, though would've loved a little better light.

It feels a touch dark to my eyes however most of the histogram is in the right most half and upper 1/4. Tried to make sure I took advantage of the whole tonal range, open to feedback as always.

R5
840mm
Handheld
ISO 3200
1/800
f5.6

LR and PS, selective DN. Small extra catchlight removed and blended a faint green grass blade on far right.

PS - check out that gnarly toe...

[William Dickson]

Don't look dark here Brian....Exposure looks spot on...you managed to pull out some great feather detail....works for me, what a great perch, and the colours throughout blend very nice...Lovely pose and spot on HA....Wishing that both legs were in focus(and I bet you do to) would put the icing on the cake, but that is being extreme...I have lots of small bird images where the legs, or one leg is out of focus, even at 7.1......Again, very nice work mate...with regards to the gnarly toe....I have looked into this in the past, as I have also noticed it in some of my images....Apparently, according to the RSPB, this is a problem with birds feeding on a 'dirty' bird table....So to everyone reading this...please clean your bird table, perches more often...

Well done Brian

Will

[Arthur Morris]

I am sorry, I cannot decide what is sweeter: the subject, the perch, the soft light, or the image design... This one is a stunner. Exposure and brightness look spot on. And Iforget to mention, you could not paint it any better than this ...

with love, a

ps: I could not care less about not having both legs in focus.

[Paul Burdett]

Brian. What a sweet image! The overall composition, bird's pose, feather detail, colours and sharpness are all top notch, as is the post processing. Love the perch! Doesn't look a touch dark on my monitor at all.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice frame Brian, I'd only wish for just 1-2 degree head turn towards us, pretty perch too

TFS

[dankearl]

I like the pose and HA, Perch makes this special.. very nice.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Lighting looks just right - in fact, cloudy conditions (and especially cloudy-bright) are my favorite right after the golden hour. Gnarly toe indeed, needs a wart-removal ointment lol. Perfect perch and super nice BG.

[Kurt Bowman]

Love this frame Brian! great BG, perch, pose, HA, etc. Great work!

[Brian Sump]

Thank you very much everyone. Glad you all received it well!

Will, thanks for the 'dirty feet' info!

[John Mack]

Nice bird, nice pose and background. But my favorite is that lichen covered rock perch.