Blue Grosbeak

[Jim Neiger]

SoCal - 1D3,500mm, hand held, 1/1600, F6.3, ISO 800, manual exposure

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very complex composition, nicely done.
The plant is balanced very well in the frame,
the bird looks great. A bit of head turn or eye contact
would've change the mood of the picture. This way, with the bird looking away,
it has a dreamy feel to it IMO.
At first I thought I'm bothered by the patchiness of the BG,
but the fact that the bird is centered in the dark spot makes it
actually very nice.

Cheers,

[Jim Neiger]

Very complex composition, nicely done.
The plant is balanced very well in the frame,
the bird looks great. A bit of head turn or eye contact
would've change the mood of the picture. This way, with the bird looking away,
it has a dreamy feel to it IMO.
At first I thought I'm bothered by the patchiness of the BG,
but the fact that the bird is centered in the dark spot makes it
actually very nice.

Cheers,

Iilja,

The sky was a yucky light gray that I did not want for a bg, but I could not get any higher (I was standing on tiptoes) so I tried for the only bit of green vegetation in the bg. Then I tried to place the bird in the frame for the most pleasing composition. We had tried to do a setup where we selected the perch and bg, but we were not able to get the bird on our perch. We ended up following the bird around and getting images like this one.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Nice technicals, sharp, well exposed. There is a lot of detail in the image, which encourages the eye to explore the bird, plant, blossoms, etc.

From a composition standpoint, I would prefer that the stem on the upper right, and top left, that run out of the frame, were cloned back to the larger stem. I find that these elements tend to lead my eye out of the frame. The plant frames the bird nicely, and I like the idea of keeping our attention in the frame. This is just a personal impression, but for me the image would be more contained without those stems.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Mike Tracy]

Nicely done on the exposure and I like the myriad of colors through out the image. Being able to see the tiny thistles adds to the intimacy.

The branch on the left where the buds are is a tad distracting. I know you take a minimalist approach in editing so I won't suggest cloning them out. It is what it is. A technically well done image with a few elements that I am sure you wish weren't present either if had the choice.

I do like these images where habitat plays a integral role, they are just so difficult to pull off perfectly.

[Jim Neiger]

Jim:

Nice technicals, sharp, well exposed. There is a lot of detail in the image, which encourages the eye to explore the bird, plant, blossoms, etc.

From a composition standpoint, I would prefer that the stem on the upper right, and top left, that run out of the frame, were cloned back to the larger stem. I find that these elements tend to lead my eye out of the frame. The plant frames the bird nicely, and I like the idea of keeping our attention in the frame. This is just a personal impression, but for me the image would be more contained without those stems.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

I thought about it and decided not to clone them out. The one the bugs me is the one behind the tail. If I had gone the clone them out route, I would have cloned that one as well. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Stu Bowie]

Nicely framed between the two plant stems. Super pose, and amazing colours captured on the Grosbeak. Cool perch too.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

It's NOT flying Jim? :D

I love the V-shaped perch bracing against both sides of the frame. Great HA on the bird too. Colors super. I like it very much! :)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

All has been said Jim. Very striking composition. Love the colors and detail in this one.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Wonderful color,comp. and detail. Love the look over the shoulder.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jim,
Take this with a grain of salt as i have an unusual love of the crop tool:eek:......I do like the original....as it shows a great environment. all the other tech stuff is right on. You may want to look at a crop off the entire left bud (split the 2 buds....it will mimic the stem on the right going out)....or my preference....the 2nd bud straight down......which gets rid of the large grey area. Just bringing up a few options as others may face similar diecisions.......still excellent as presented!

[Bruce Enns]

Hi Jim, great image with a classic look-back pose on a cool perch. BG works for me...sharpness and details all there. To clone or not to clone...I'm not sure, but it works as is for me.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Lovely capture Jim!

Great composition and bird. I would desat the yellows a little on the flower in front of the bird.

[Craig Markham]

An incredibly beautiful image, Jim. You really optimized all the elements in the frame -- placing the dark portion of the OOF BG so that it outlines the bird, the lovely framing by the plant (tarweed?) with the yellow flowers complementing the blues in the feathers. (the orange tings in the flowers also pick up the orange shoulder patches). You caught just enough eye contact. I also like the finely-focused botanical details -- bumping the aperture to f/6.3 expanded the DOF just enough. The stems that leave the frame in the upper left top and the upper right? That's what plants do. Thank you for sharing this wonderful capture!