Married too long?

[dankearl]

Purple Martin pair that looks a bit bored.

1/640
f8
400mm
iso400

Light a bit harsh at midday, but I rarely see a pair perched together.

[John Chardine]

Dan- Nice juxtaposition of the two birds. Love the background and the head-angles are good for both (a rare thing!). As you say the light was harsh and there are some deep shadows around the face of the male. It would have been optimal if the righthand perch had ended before the frame edge to the right. Not sure why but the image quality is a little low- large crop? The image looks oversharpened to me. Finally, I would crop a lot off the top and create a landscape aspect ratio. I don't think the expanse of BG above adds anything to the image.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Dan,

Lovely pose, but I agree with John about the crop, the harsh light particularly on the male, and the over-sharpening. Was the catchlight in the female's eye natural? - looks a bit bright, but obviously it was a bright day.

Richard

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Dan, I agree with good points made above. I'm guessing a large crop on this one, as there is a serious loss of detail. Trying to recover lost detail with sharpening results in the crispy look you ended up with. Great opportunity to get the pair resting like this and I love your title! I would crop about half of the empty space on top.