Taken yesterday at Plum Island. I liked the background. I cloned a branch on the right and reduced noise on the background.
D300 with 400VR + 1.7 tc - auto iso (450) 1/800 at 5.6
SS = simply stunning. Great head angle, posture, sharpness, EXP, moth, and a killer BKGR. Is it o-of fall color? Nice perch too.
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Too bad about the not-so-elegant abrupt ending to the perch, and for me I find the BG a bit too strong. Although the subject is perfectly exposed the strong BG makes it appear darker than it is. Don't get me wrong...it is very beautiful and I'm sure the colour was quite amazing, but I would still desaturate it a bit. The bird and prey are super cool!
I don't mind the broken-off end of the perch but I agree with Daniel that the yellow background, while beautiful, is oversaturated and distracts from the bird a bit. Otherwise, it's a really beautiful image and the insect is a real bonus.
Beth and Daniel - if you are subbed to this thread - do you find this one better. I reduced the saturation of the bg - shows up on my monitor on the full size argb tiff - hope it shows up on the srgb save for web version.