Red-winged Blackbird

[Brendan Dozier]

Liked the way this Red-winged Blackbird stood out on these dry reeds, and the triangle shapes they made. ACR, CS5, Cloned out some distracting reeds & reflections to simplify composition & even out BG.

7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2.0x
1/160
5.6
ISO 800

[john jackson]

Nice environmental portrait and those bent reeds are superb. Maybe tone down the reds a little to show more detail?

[Tom Rambaut]

I like the idea of the reeds but find the big reed too the left distracting - I like the colour of the BG and the blacks in the bird look nice - nice feather detail on the back of the bird.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Brendan, I like the concept but I think you have to many reeds in the image as presented and your subject gets lost in the frame if you could lose about 50% of what you have now I think it would really work. Also the reds are blown on the wings which is a bit distracting

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the RWB perched near the top of the one bent reed, but find the other one too much...you can crop from left to 2:3 ratio and tone down the red epaulettes which currently feature blown reds (you could selectively desaturate the red channel, or add some cyan to them). Nice spring feel though...but gotta get through the late fall and then winter before seeing these guys again!

P.S. Looks like I type much slower than Don, sorry for some of the repetition :-)

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks for the comments & suggestions, here's a quick repost:

[wendell westfall]

Brendan, good work; the re-post is a big improvement.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice shot Brendan, the repost is a big improvement IMO. the other broken stem was not adding much the to original image...

[Melissa Groo]

Great job on the repost, Brendan. Those broken reeds are just too cool! Love the sense of habitat here.