Hi Doug...nice photo, sharp and colors bang on for this bird.....IMO background needs a little NR (noise reduction) and bird is a little too centered, if you cropped this image try recropping with a little more room on left.
Nice subject with a good pose. Great low angle, and smooth BG. I could be wrong, but the image has a bit of a big crop look to it, and I agree that some NR would help improve the "finish".
I like the composition just the way you have it. My eye travels around through the various parts of the bird and never leaves the image. It holds my attention and feels very balanced.
Hi Doug: Nice close-up and I like the way the bird is holding its head. The BG is a bit noisy as mentioned earlier and I vote for taking a little off the top. Centering of the image here doesn't bother me at all. Some of Artie's award-winning images are centered.
Me thinks this works just fine centered up like it is but that's not to say you couldn't shift him to the right as an alternate composition let's say. Of course then you would need to be concerned about loosing balance--meaning there would start to be a need for some = comp weight there on the left. But I love it as is.
The bottom could use more canvas for the virtual feet but then again with the foreground being so OOF focus that might start to be distracting. This is one of those it's a good idea but maybe it won't work here type of thing. You could try it.....
A crop off the top I agree would improve his position to that of one a little bit more commanding by raising him up a tad.
On the notion that a picture should hold the viewers eye and not let him out is not exactly the way you want to think about a good comp. . Where I am coming from is that since an image to be successful must take a person on a visual journey--there should be a starting point and a departing exit point, or at least that would be ideal let's say. After this if the viewer enjoyed the journey they will go on it again. Just something to keep in mind as some images can really capitalize on this principle.
Also I might be seeing a bit of a magenta cast overall--did you do a white balance check? And if you could tickle a little more color out of the ground vegetation that could give some pleasing stuff to look at too.
Beautiful shot Doug with a very commanding pose--one worth tweaking to see what else you can get out of it.
Hudsonian Godwit
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