Dark-Eyed Junco

[Mark Schmitt]

Culling through archives. Binning a lot of images and then came across this.

Self critique: Some extraneous elements were removed, especially from the perch. The head could be turned just a little away from the camera to bring the eye in more contact. Texture in perch is not over-sharpened, that is the way the wood, from this bleached oak, was made into high relief from years of hard winds and sand literally sand blasting it into this texture. All else I can live with.

EXIF
Camera: Canon 30D
Lense: Canon EF 500 IS L + 1.4 T/C; effective focal length 700mm
Mode: All manual
Metering: average
ISO: 400
White bal.: custom 5200K
Exposrue: 1/320 @ f 5.6 -.33 comp.; fill flash + 1/8 power, Better beamer extender

Feel free: ;)

[Dan Walker]

Good self critique. I like the character in the perch, not sure about the extra branch coming out from the left. Nice smooth BG. I do wish for more DOF for the tail. Nice image

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting perch, good light, details and BG. I might be tempted to remove the part of the perch that is sticking out and crop some off the bottom.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mark - exposue looks good as does the flash, would crop some from the bottom and clone out the bit of the perch that sticks out if that fits with your persoanl ethics :)