Mrs. Goldfinch- looking for spring.

[Randy Stout]

I had a chance to shoot in my backyard today. Have a couple of feeders set out and was working from a chair blind under my daughters play structure. The light was pretty low, had rained on and off all day. Worked on a natural look to my fill flash.

Would appreciate comments, esp. on cropping. I tried several versions, but kept coming back to this one. It is about 85% of the original.

D300 500mm/f4 f/6.3 ISO 800 1/200s -1.3 EC on SB800 Better Beamer Gitzo/WII

Thanks for looking

Randy

[Mark Fuge]

Nice shot, I know how flighty they can be, having shot one a few years ago after great effort. Hard to get them to sit still long enough to shoot. The feeder may have helped here though.

I like the pose, as for cropping, I would look at eliminating the bottom branch junction and the leaves from it. That would give you about 1/3 "open space" on the bottom and 2/3 on the top. Normally, I leave more on the bottom than the top, but the angle of the bird suggests that it "would move" in that direction so it should have added space. As far as the horizontal, I would leave as is.

Nice shot.

[Stu Bowie]

Great flashwork Randy, and you have exposed the colours perfectly. Comp wise, maybe this is personal, but I would change this to a pano crop, due to his posture. Still, well captured.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Peter and Mark:

I have been hanging out in the macro forum, and have started to appreciate plants for more than just perches!

So, I think it biased my cropping here! Here is more of a pano crop. Still not completely satisfied, I think there is more to be had here.

Thanks for your input.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, eye contact and BG. As for the crop, something between original and repost might work best. I would also sharpen the bird a bit more.

[Fabs Forns]

Here's my take at the crop. I feel that the perch overpowers the small bird, it may work well for a bigger bird.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Axel and Fabs for the comments!

Now if I can just get a bigger bird to land there, without the perch breaking off!

Cheers

Randy