Hairy Woodpecker

[Tom Walter]

I like this view of the hairy woodpecker. I think the tree trunk and surroundings add to the image. I thought about putting it in the upper right but decided against it because the background above the bird is not attractive.

Nikon D200
Hand held
Nikon 70-300 4.5-5.6G VR
1/400 sec, f 7.1
ISO 400

[John Chardine]

Tom- This is a nice portrayal of a male Hairy Woodpecker. The Yellow Birch "perch" is rendered beautifully as well. The light is filtered but you have handled it well here. The OOF tree limb in the FG is distracting and looks difficult to deal with. The BG could be blurred a bit to reduce its impact.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hi Tom,

Very nice image of the Woodpecker. John has mentioned the nits about some image elements.

Keep it up mate and let's see more. :)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Exposure control and details look good. I agree regarding the branch in the foreground and would try to remove the 'steely' look from the eye. It looks a bit overflashed.

[Tom Walter]

I like the suggestions. I cloned out the front branch, blurred the background a bit and tried to remove some of the steely look in the eye. I like it much better. What do you think?