Common acrobat- composition?

[John Chardine]

After a 1 April snow fall which covered the grass and the worms, the American Robins were hungry. As a result I've had them at my Staghorn Sumac for last couple of days.

Not much done to the image other than a crop to about 50% of original size. The eye was lightened a bit to bring out some detail and an ugly piece of Sumac flower was removed.

What do you think about the crop with the bird at more or less the centre of the frame?

Date: 3 April, 2011, Time: 09:47
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM, 500 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 640, 1/500s, f/7.1
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: off

[William Malacarne]

Snow on April 1st....WOW. Send that boy back to So Cal, we 91 deg F on the 1st. It looks good to me John, I don't find anything wrong with this one being centered.

Bill

[Kerry Perkins]

John, wonderful high key image. Love the color and detail. I think the comp is fine, as the centering ban is somewhat forgiven with vertical images.

[Rachel Hollander]

John- I don't have a problem with this being centered. There's something very simple but elegant about it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Tom Redd]

Add my vote to the "centered is fine" in this image, but I echo, the comment about centering vertical compositions.

[John Chardine]

Snow on April 1st....WOW. Send that boy back to So Cal, we 91 deg F on the 1st. It looks good to me John, I don't find anything wrong with this one being centered.

Bill

I could take 30°C right about now!

[John Chardine]

Thanks for the comments so far. I agree, I like the centred comp. One thing that makes it work is the reversed S-curve starting with the bird's tail UL and ending with the Sumac stem LR.

[Grace Scalzo]

John,
This is such an artist presentation - with the comp that you have chosen and the curves, it is wonderfully pleasing to the eye. The behavior is great and the colors are sweet. I REALLY love this image.

[Stan Cunningham]

John, if you really look at it the bird is not centered, the flower is. Hence the artistic composition as stated above. And the light background was perfect to bring out what can be a tough species to get colors out of, especially on a WARM sunny day in AZ, which hit 100 that day.
Stan

[David N Smith]

John, I am no expert but I like the comp a lot. Being centered or nearly centered I think really works well here.

Dave