Grackle

[Tim Rucci]

I realize there are some flaws in this one, but I like the pose. I was at the Players Championship practice rounds in Ponte Vedra Beach photograping the golfers, and when I took a break to get a snack I saw several grackles hopping around in some pine straw. I got down on the ground to blur the background and shot several dozen images hoping to get some crips ones. My error was shooting the 300 f2.8 wide open, as the depth of field is razor thin at this close distance. But they were very lively and moving around a lot, so I wanted to keep a relatively high shutter speed. I have some blurred mess in the lower right foreground, but I liked the pose enough to keep this one. The blurred azaleas in the background do not bother me much personally, but I figure someone is sure to say they are distracting. Enough said; here's the image:

IMAGE DETAILS: Canon 1D Mark2N, Canon 300 f2.8, 1/1600 at f2.8, iso 400, manual exposure in natural light.
PROCESSING: Cloned out part of a green leaf in the lower right foreground.

[Tobias Hayashi]

Beautiful work! Great detail and pose here. I would add a bit more room above the head and maybe to the right hand side if possible. Other than that, I love the smooth and green/pink background.

[Randy Stout]

Tim:

Nice shooting angle, head angle, soft light.

I like the idea of a little color from the azaleas, but I might desat them a bit, as they are attention magnets, and pull my eye from the bird. I would prefer they compliment the bird, not compete with him.

Part of that issue stems from the location by the birds head also.

Neat that you were able to switch from golfers to birds!

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

I like the soft colors and the basic COMP. I am fine with the d-o-f. The face could use some selective sharpening, the eye could use some Eye Doctor work, and the head needs to be square to the back of the camera for over the shoulder images. I am OK with the flowers but they would look better in front of the bird as the color draws the eye.