i showed this bird to our ornithologist and he said it was a common sight.
i know he is being truthful and i'm sure he is right....next time.
i've photoed many cardinals and have always found the female to be intreguing. this one is different. thecolors are way out of bounds for a normal adult female.
here it is in all its glory, and i think this is the most beautiful female card i have ever seen.:) it is not the cleanest photo, but is true in color.
Hi Mike,
I like the composition, the bird is placed just right in frame. I like the head angle and eye contact. The background has allot of noise and is a bit busy. This takes away from your subject. The bird is a bit on the soft side and the eye is out of focus. The base image is under exposed. I also see some type of post processing or cloning artifact at the bottom of the tail area and along the lower part of the branch...It looks like part of the bird's tail was blurred. I made a few corrections to illustrate these points. I reduced the noise and blended the background to a softer feel, not too prominent, still keeping the original pattern and design. I boosted contrast and saturation just slightly; opened up the whites, and selective sharpened the eye and face area, and also sharpened the contour of the wings...:cool:
thanks to both of you. i put this bird up on several other sites. it is pretty much just a strange coloration of a female cardinal. gus, thanks for all the work you did on this image. i can see many of the things i forgot now that i see your work.
thanks again.
mike
I have never seen a cardinal with that coloring. I like the placement of the bird and the the branch give a vertical to the image. Gus as usual has provide an excellent critique.
that strange cardinal again
