Dressed to the nines

[Randall Branham]

This lady cardinal just looks well dressed up to me . I had a chance to capture a quick snap of her and I'm not sure I got the focus point on the eye, will it work for possible publishing??

[Daniel Cadieux]

Lovely lady on a great perch with a good BG. The image is too contrasty and too saturated, and indeed the focus point is not on the eye...it's on the thigh. I would also prefer the flower at right not be clipped. Lots of potential here, just needs some more TLC :-)

[Grace Scalzo]

I think Daniel hit all the issues that I see, I'd just add that I think that the flower color totally clashes with the color of the cardinal.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Nice pose and composition. The flower is a bit cut and bloom is too hot in this basically dark environment.
Use different focus sensor than the central one to be able to focus on the face/eye.

Szimi

[Randall Branham]

Thanks for all the tips . I really appreciate all the feedback we get on this forum and it's all good.
I shot this a little overexposed and had to use a curves and exposure adjustment on the snag and pea vine in the bottom right corner. I also screwed up and clipped the same flower a bit in my shot . My question is if I wanted to summit this to a magazine would I be better off leaving the flower as is or adding space and the tip of the flower on and trying for a more perfect composition, or is this shot not worthy of being published?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the raised crest and eye contact. I would give it more room to include the flower and the bird needs more sharpening.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Randall,
I agree with the comments given above. It depends upon the publication. Some of the publications don't allow adding space or flower tip. You need to check the policies of the magazine. Also, you can look at the images published in the magazine to get a fair idea about the quality of images.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Aidan Briggs]

I agree with above comments. You can select only the flowers and tone them down without affecting the exposure of the entire image. As for publishing, it depends on the quality of the magazine, and the demand for that species. With lots of excellent cardinal shots already out there from photographers whom are on magazines want lists, I doubt a magazine would publish this. However, if this were a little photographed species you would have a better chance.

Hope this helps

[Randall Branham]

Thanks Alex-Thanks Sabyasachi-Thanks Aidan this is the kind of candid advice I need to hear we sometimes forget how many millions of Cardinals have been photographed. Guess I had better look for something rare, to bad I don't live in Florida or Louisiana I would hunt for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker lol. I have a lot to learn but i know this , the more I learn the more I realize how much there is to learn . thanks Randall