Back on a more serious note....
I've decided not to make a bird triptych after deciding that the roller could stand as a print on its own (not the failed BIF, the previous image), but thought I'd rather make a series of birds in the same style but with different colours and textures. So this is the first one I've tried. The black shouldered kite (I think this is right) was photographed at Lake Nakuru NP, Kenya against a bright blue sky. I felt that the tree branches were interesting, the way they made an inverse 'V' shape and the direct stare. The raw file did need quite a large crop and there was a lot of noise in the sky but the texture has, in my opinion, covered up those short comings. The right eye was in shadow so I had to recreate the eye from flipping the left eye over and blending it. I had thoughts of removing some of the twigs on the right hand side, but I didn't want to make it look artificially perfect, but more natural as it is a wild bird.
I would love to know if you think it works as an image or if I need to do anything more to improve it.
Thanks all.







Ordinarily, I would suggest a slice off the top, but it still works with the BG vignette as is. It is lovely. At some point, would you share your technique for background texturing, it is beautiful, and it pops the Kite. Very nice!



