Head and eye seem soft. Looks like the point of focus was on the little white flower. Also would crop off the right so the subject has more room on the left to look into.
Thanks Joe, duly noted and you are correct about the focus point.
I prefer my images not too sharp, had I included the foliage to the left of the bird, Artie would have castrated me for excessive and busy background :)
Neat little bird, Chris. I agree with the bird being soft. With all the SS and clean BG you had you could have stopped down lots more to ensure proper sharpness in case of the focus point being a bit off as it was here. The comp actually almost works here, with good balance offered from the branches in URC. The HA angle could be better though, and I wish the small twigs overlapping the subject weren't so tangled.
I am well aware that this board is devoted to superb images lacking almost all extraneous background and fidgety bits but that is not my way of photographing our native birds and that old mate will not change.
I fully appreciate the advice I receive here and believe me I note it well but my images are for educational use and that is the way it will stay.
I love the pristine images here but they lack reality and soul so please don't expect me to compete along those lines it simply won't happen.
The wonderful advice I get here is carefully stored and when needed brought out to play but the students and associations I mainly deal with do not want a Van Gogh but a nice and realistic image that they can relate to in their parks and forests and that is what I give them.
The reason I do not post often here is that I feel that judgment (not that it means squat to me) may dissuade folk (and I know of many) from participating more often here and as I have often had pointed out to me, many students do not have the access to good Post Processing software and the education to use it if they did.
Regardless, I point out to them the value of participating, even by lurking here, to gain the finer points of this wonderful hobby/profession.
I like the overall feel for this composition. Nice to include some natural habitat. I don't like my birds over sharpened, either, but a tad more on this bird's head area would accentuate this pretty bird. I love to see birds from other countries that I would otherwise not have a chance to see. thanks for sharing yours with me, today. :)
I like my images just the way they are but I am more than happy for the great advice that I get gratis on this forum and pass it all on to our students and allow them to decide which direction they will head.
Australian Red Wattlebird
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