Dancing In The Wind

[Jim Fenton]

Typically, when I've been creating goldfinch images recently, I'm really looking for optimal subject isolation.

As the thistle dies down, it becomes tougher however and when I caught this goldfinch doing it's darnedest to balance and hold it's position in a 20 MPH west wind, I thought it might create an interesting sort of environmental image.

Even at 1/1600 I couldn't stop the wing motion, but at least the head and a good portion of the body were sharp.

Your thoughts?

Nikon D300, 500 AFS~VR, TC17EII, ISO 640, f8, 1/1600, CW metering, -.7 EV compensation, UniWB preset.

This was a half hour before sunset, in very warm light.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the setting, eye contact and wing blur. I'm not so sure about the plants sticking out of his head and wing.

[Cheryl Ertelt]

Pretty BG. It looks like a precarious perch.

[carole wiley]

I agree with Axel, those two branches are a distraction. Other than that I love the image.

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Lovely balancing act you have captured here Jim. I like the spiky plant. The BG branches are a bit unfortunate.

[Doug Brown]

The FG looks good, with a nice pose and interesting perch. The BG is a bit of a distraction for the reasons outlined above, but it doesn't bother me too much. I see some cloning artifacts in the LLC. Thanks for posting!