Hello BPN!

[Santanu Banik]

Hello BPN family! This is my first post to this great site. I am here to learn - would appreciate your criticism and suggestions to my posts. Thanks in advance!

This one is from Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary trip (Karnataka, India). On the second day of the trip, we started early morning from our cottage and the plan was to do birding near the Sigekhan forest department IB area. We enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and the weather was ideal for birding.
This little cutie was around and I had seen her going back and forth to a hot spot - where the background was a dark shaded bush and the subject was lit by the early morning Sunrays.

Had to wait for my luck, and was eagerly waiting for this chap to perch there.

Patience paid off at last, she came and sat there; thanks to the soft morning Sunlight, and a pitch dark BG, I could get what I was waiting for.
No flash used, with a -1 stop exposure compensation @ ISO 200. A couple of tiny branches at the bottom have been cloned off.

[Arthur Morris]

Hello Santanu, I am glad to be the first person to welcome you to the BPN family. And you certainly started with a dramatic image. I love it as is; you did a great job with a difficult EXP. If it fits with your personal ethics, it would not be too difficult to either lighten or remove the shadows entirley. The bird's colors are amazing and the head angle is perfect.

That said the image would have been even more powerful if the bird had landed on the very top of this or another perch. We are looking forward to seeing more.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Santanu! Great first post. I like the pose, details and this is a very beautiful bird. I agree regarding lightening or removing the shadow of the perch if this is something you do. I look forward to your future posts.