Cedar Waxwing

[Dan Brown]

Captured this Waxwing in our backyard today. I removed a couple of leaves from the lower left corner and cropped a little from the left side. PP'ed in ACR and CS3, reduced noise a little in the BG with Noise Ninja. C&C Welcome.


Camera Model: NIKON D300, monopod mounted
Shutter speed: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Optional,TTL -2.0
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 310mm
Focal length: 465mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-S

[Doug Brown]

Probably my favorite image of yours Dan! Excellent pose, incredible perch (incredible fall colors that don't overpower), and great sharpness. I'd probably do another pass of NR on the BG.

[Narayan Pai]

lovely bird and perch ...I like the compo ....agree with Doug on another round of NR on the BG

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image , lovely settings and techs spot on
TFS

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Voting for more NR myself. Lovely pose and setting. Well done Dan!

[Keith Carver]

Nice pose and COMP, Dan with lovely BG. Apart from the slightly noisy BG, my only nit is that the catchlight seems a bit funky. Overall, an excellent capture.

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice colorful image Dan!

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Dan, I like this image very much. Nice head angle and the colors and very pleasing. I like the composition and see good details in the bird. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave Leroy]

Good looking bird Dan. I really like the composition and fall colours. Well done. Dave

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

Lovely colors, pose, sharpness. BG noise mentioned.

From a comp point, I like it except for the branch just in front of the birds bill. It is such a strong component that it stops my scanning towards the right side of the image, tends to divide the image.

Still, all in all, very nice.

They are beautiful birds.

Randy

[Danny J Brown]

Hi Dan: Coming in late here but I just discovered this beautiful composition of my very favorite bird. Well done!

[Dan Brown]

Thanks to all for the kind comments! I agree with the BG noise and have applied more reduction to the master file! As for the large branch, I agree totally that it splits the image but, it is what it is:)! Posting here is, once again, the final step in optimizing an image for me!