State Bird Of Texas--Mockingbird

[LouisKeller]

State bird of Texas, the Mockingbird. Photo taken while on a deer hunt in South Texas.

Canon MarkIII with Canon 500mm f/4 IS 2 f/8, 1/2000, ISO 640. Some sharpening and cropped in PS otherwise as the image came from the camera.

[Randy Stout]

Louis:

I like the pose, tail paralleling the perch, eye is well illuminated.

The background is showing a lot of noise or compression artifacts which detract from the picture.
The out of focus branches above the bird are also a bit distracting, and you might try to tone them down.

Randy

[LouisKeller]

I agree with your suggestion and have reposted the image.

Thanks

[Randy Stout]

Louis:

Still some noise/artifacts, but better!
I can see some dark halos showing around the birds head from your selection work, but overall better.
Randy

[Mark Adkins]

I like the pose, head angle and perch. Nice light. With that shutter speed, you had the ability to decrease the ISO and stop down. Both would have helped the background issues.

Mark

[David Thomasson]

My favorite bird ... jazz man of the bird world, and you captured the attitude perfectly. They always seem to want to get
right up on the tip of something -- a tree, a branch, a telephone pole, a weather vane -- and sing their hearts out.

I think I would dim the background considerably on this one to put Mr. Jazzbo a bit more in the limelight.

[Fabs Forns]

I lie the pose and attitude of the MB. I think the main problem here is the light angle, both as the time of day this was captured and the way is coming from the upper right, creating shadows on the other side of the bird.
We share the same State Bird :)