There were literally thousands of Yellow-rumped Warblers passing through Cape May over the weekend. This image is a bit busy compared to other recent "Yumper" posts with beautiful backgrounds, but I liked catching him with his prey.
D90 | 80-400 VR @ 400mm | ISO 640 | 1/1600s @ f/7.1 | -0.3 EV | HH
Hey Bill, I like the pose and meal. I think that the turned up leaf in the front is mildly distracting. Hard to get these out in the open w/o some kind of messy BG. I think you did a good job w/ this one.
Nice capture, Bill! Bird is sharp and well-exposed and the bug in the bill is a bonus. I'm fine with the crop as presented. On my monitor the BG looks over-blurred. I suspect you were probably trying to de-accentuate the BG, but it doesn't look natural to me.
Thanks Indranil, Denise and John for the comments. John, you caught me -- the BG straight out of the camera was pretty well OOF, and moreso after a round of NR; but I did add a slight Surface Blur to it, enough to catch your eye. I also desaturated it a bit. I'll go back to the master and take another look. Thanks for the catch.
I love how the front toe is gripping the leaf...very neat! Good catch by the warbler too for added interest for your image. I wouldn't be surprised if the BG looked better untouched (save for NR).