This Bluebird was photographed at Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge in Northern New Mexico. My goal was to create a background that mimmicked the bluebird. The tan lower part of the background are grasses, the middle blue is a distant mountain, and finally the blue sky. Late Afternoon Light.
5D, 500mm f/4 with 1.4X at f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 100
Beanbag from car.
This makes for a striking image, Keith! I love how the background colors echo the bird's coloration; and I love the composition in general. I'm inexperienced enough that I need to ask: was this the natural background and your camera settings resulted in this gradient-like blur? The only thing I can see to nitpick about is the halo around the bird's back, head, and especially the beak. You are probably aware of several ways to avoid that haloing, one being to sharpen on a layer and then erase the halo.
Nicely done. The colors in the birds plumage and the colors in the background seem to be made for each other. I'm a fan of rule-of-thirds cropping and for me cropping such that the birds head fell within "the rule" would improve the image.. then again... it's a fine image as it stands. Nice work.
I like the details, perch and BG. I would crop a bit off the left, apply some NR on the BG and desaturate the image a bit. The sharpening halo has been mentioned.
I love this picture. It is very pleasing. I alos like the crop leaving a lot of room to the left, with such a pleasing background, it makes it great. I also noticed the sharpening halo.
Exquisitewas the first word that came to me Keith - The play of colours and the sheer simplicity just makes this image jump out at you. Congratulations!!