male Yellowhammer in Spring

[Amano Samarpan]

This bird is a Bunting!

Sampford Common, SW England, UK

500mm f4 IS with 1.4X
Canon D30
1/350@f6.7
ISO 200


Amano

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Hi Amano,

I like the matching colors of the bird and the tree. My biggest problems is with the composition. I would have put the bird in the left side of the frame, as he is looking to the right. I would have also tried to create more separation between the bird and the yellow flower branch just left of the bird by moving myself (and the tripod) to the left. The tallest flower branch should have been close to the left side frame edge. The bird looks a bit soft, and maybe a little bit more contrast would give the image a bit of punch.

All the best,
Clemens

[Amano Samarpan]

Hi Clemens

This is some of the most valuable feedback I have received since posting in this forum ... thanks!

Amano

[Amano Samarpan]

Here is a repost .. of another image from the same sequence !

By the way, I used split toning in RAW rather than masking to emphasise the bluish sky.

Amano

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Here is a repost .. of another image from the same sequence !

By the way, I used split toning in RAW rather than masking to emphasise the bluish sky.

Amano

Amano,

This crop works way better, obviously the head angle of the bird is not correct.

Clemens

[Amano Samarpan]

Clemens

Agree about the head position but I could not ask the bird to move the way I wanted and not a lot of time to move myself though probably I would try that another time... 14 frames in some 20 seconds to make results such as above ... not an easy bird to get close to!

By the way, the plant is known as Gorse. A kind of shrub.

Cheers

Amano :D

[Daniel Cadieux]

You know what Amano?? I love, love, love the original comp!! Really! The way the two main stalks lean in the opposite direction of the bird's position balances everything nicely. Very appealing IMO and the repost does not have the same initial "ooohhh" effect. I do think the OP could use a black point adjustment (darker darks) and some of the yellows in the flowers are a bit too bright, but very well done.:cool:

[Amano Samarpan]

Ha! Ha!

Thanks for your comment Daniel.

There seems to be no one way to compose an image! The second makes more sense but the first does have a slightly erratic element that I also appreciate.

As for the yellow .. mmmnnn .. I was thinking more about the blue!

Amano
:o