Young Cliff Swallow, bad hair day!

[Dan Brown]

I captured this today at Yolo Basin Wildlife Area, Yolo co, CA. Almost full frame, cropped and PP'ed in ACR and CS3.


Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Shutter speed: 1/1600 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-C

[Doug Brown]

Love the hairdo! The eye is super sharp, and I like the BG and perch. Do you have a frame where the bird's head is turned slightly towards you? Also I would try to pull some detail out of the blacks.

[Mital Patel]

this is a fantastic image Dan.. infact i am happy to see one more fella using same combo i do have.

[Kobus Tollig]

I like this well done. Like the feathers like this. I would just add some more space at the bottomand right. A bit tight for me

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

Doug hit the technical concerns. Your exposure did very well on the whites in this high contrast situation, but the blacks look blocked to me, and perhaps shadow recovery would pull out a bit of detail. A small reduction in contrast will help a bit as well.

The hairdo is so 50's!

[David Hemmings]

Wonderful details and a very cool pose with that hairdo! Some details in the blacks or a little lighting maybe?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great details and hairdo. Adding to the other suggestions, I would crop a little bit off the left side and add space at the bottom.

[Stu Bowie]

Super pose, and the wind swept feathers takes this over the top. Axel pretty much summed it up regarding the comp.

[Morkel Erasmus]

ditto Axel and Kobus on comp. super detail and pose here! love the hairdo :)

[Mark Dumbleton]

Agree on the blacks needing work - no detail present. Comp a bit tight for me, but did well with the BG.
Super effort.