Hood Mockingbird - Galápagos - Española - Another one

[Claude Ostfeld]

Hood Mockingbird, Mimus macdonaldi, also known as the Española Mockingbird.

Rather than work on the previous image I selected a different one. The Galápagos adventure drives a photographer to take an enormous number of pictures. Classifying and selecting is a task that lasts a while. I have yet to see all the images I took during 8 days.

In a previous post I supplied some additional information about the Hood Mockingbird.

Nikon D300s
Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D IF-ED + TC14
280mm
1/640
f/13
ISO 400
0 EV
No Flash
Program Normal
Date and Time (Original) 2010:08:25 08:28:12 AM

As always critiques are very welcome.

Claude

[Randy Stout]

Claude:

An attractive fellow with big feet.
The shooting angle, looking down on him is less than ideal, but perhaps unavoidable.
He looks a bit over processed to me,. I think part of the effect is caused by all the bright highlights in the background, esp. just in front of the bird.

I might try to tone those down, and possibly soften the contrast of the image a bit.

The bokeh of the highlights is a bit harsh.

A larger f/stop might have helped throw the background out of focus a bit more.

Thanks for sharing, look forward to more from this wonderful place.

Thanks for your membership support too!

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

It is indeed an attractive bird, and that whole Galapagos adventure must have been something special! I agree with Randy that there is something odd going on here in the BG, and I also agree with his other suggestions. I also find that the sharpening is strong, and would prefer the bird not looking away. Exposure looks good, and I like the lava perch - very neat.