Painted bunting

[Sidharth Kodikal]

1d Mark IV, 500 f4 + 1.4x
1/500, f8, iso 800, hide

This is a first year male (thanks John Chardine and Paul Guris for the ID confirmation)
Not as colorful as the "painted" full adult, but still a beautiful bird.

I wasn't going to keep this image initially, but I liked the cherubic pose.
BG is distant dried grass/vegetation, thanks to the extreme drought conditions.

Cropped from a horizontal original and cloned out a couple of leaves entering the frame.

[Paul Randall]

Love the pose and can't believe you were thinking of binning it:eek: I would maybe have stuck with the horizontal if there are no distraction on either side but overall a great capture

[DanWalters]

Great pose! LIke the color of the background.

[Wynand van Wyk]

Love that background as well. Super pose and detail! Ditto that a other perch would have added, but this is superb!

Very well done!

[Stu Bowie]

Sidharth, good symmetrical wing position, and glad that he turned his head slightly. I do like the yellow's and green's on the bunting, and of course the BG really stands out. I can see your thinking for a vertical, but I can also see this as your original horizontal, with a central placement of the bunting.

[Tin Man Lee]

Fantastic background and nice feature. Love the wing pose that looks like a fan in the back.

[Daniel Cadieux]

"Cherubic pose"....I like that! Nice image all around, and I love the single leaf on the perch. As a vertical I'd prefer the subject lower in the frame, but still a sweet sweet image

[Rudi van den Heever]

Stunning BG with good detail and very interesting wing position!

[John Chardine]

Great to see this young one Sidharth! The pose is unique and I love it- a classic moment in time. Beautiful background too. Agree with Daniel- I don't see any need for so much space below. As it stands you have more room below than above, which is counter to the cherubic feeling.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Sidharth! I like the wing position, colours and details.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thank you all for the kind comments and feedback. I will certainly try the proposed comps.

[Dumay de Boulle]

I like it. Great Bg and unusual wing position.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Siddharth, best part is the pose. Without those wings, the head-on angle would not have worked....terrific shot.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I also like the cherubic pose and it is just that. I relly like the perch and usually like the greens that are attached but for some reason that green leaf keeps distracting me. I'm glad you didn't throw this one out. I think it's great and very different from the norm.

[arash_hazeghi]

great pose and a nice BG! so you got the 500? good choice!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thanks for all the comments.

so you got the 500? good choice!

Yes! Got all my excuses out of the way ;)
(well, the only one left is that I wish my town was birdier :)