On the top

[Thomas Herou]

A Great Tit balancing on the top of a pinetree.

K20D,Sigma 500,ISO 400,f/5,6,1/400s

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely head angle, bird, and great perch. Sharp. The whole thing looks a bit dark, and the dark BKGR with the large yellow circle is distracting to me.

[Thomas Herou]

Thanks,Arthur!
This dark light is our Swedish light in snowfree winters.About the lighter area in the backround,I
kind of like it.It gives life to the compositon in my eyes.It's just a matter of taste.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW Thomas. Generally, our eyes are attracted to unusually light or dark areas of an image and in this case that is distracting for me (and I would believe for lots of other folks as well).

I have, however, given this a bit more thought: if you have moved one big step to your left the yellow ball would have been on the right side of the frame with the bird on the left, and the yellows on opposite sides of the frame would have balanced nicely.

[Thomas Herou]

I think you are correct there,Arthur.In the heat of the moment you don't always think about such things.
Also I think that we northeners are more used to variations in lightsources,so for us it's pretty normal.
We live in the dark for a long time of the year.;)

[Arthur Morris]

I think you are correct there,Arthur.In the heat of the moment you don't always think about such things. Also I think that we northeners are more used to variations in lightsources,so for us it's pretty normal. We live in the dark for a long time of the year.;)

With practice, you will learn to check the BKGR more often. We have some pretty great variations in lighting here too. Every day the sunm comes up and down. As the repost shows, digital is capable of rendering even scenes that we perceive as dark as more pleasing (at least to my eye).

[Thomas Herou]

Big thanks for the good advice!
Much better after your correction.Time to practice.