Hi Monte, Nice close-up portrait of the jay. My first impression of the image is that it reminded me of photographs of people where a portion of the face is kept in the shadows. I not sure if that this was the effect you were going for but, since that light is more of a side light, I thought it would be interesting to enhance the effect by darkening the image and masking out the lighter areas of the bird to maintain the original brightness. I also lightened the eye a little. Just a something to consider as this certainly changes the mood and may not be consistent with your original concept.
Either image works well depending on your preference. I like the first best, although the eye in the second is very nicely done.
My suggestion would be to crop a bit off the top and some more off the left.
Well done. It is very nice and sharp and the pose is spot on.
Howdy Monte. This is a very awkward COMP. With the bird cut off in the center of the breast it appears to be stuck into the frame... There is too much negative space in the image especially above. At this magnification, I would have tried for some sort of VERT...
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Blue jay up close
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