The Dancing Butcherbird

[Jack Breakfast]

Buzzy little birdfriends, here is a shrike on a stick! Anyhow, here we have a square format, that's for sure. I like it but will welcome your input with earnestness and hope! Please know that this one has been heavily cropped and was also 1.5 stops underexposed in the first place and as such, the IQ is slouchy! I became remarkably unconcerned with fidelity of color, which is one of the many reasons why I'm posting this image here on this fine forum. But I do like the look of it. Or the feel, maybe. Recently I printed this one for a hero of mine and I hope he'll like it. I'll find out later. But that's neither here nor there. I look forward to your ideas and suggestions...many thanks...

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jack, I like it. I find it very artful I like the shorter stick - it seems to balance the image and I like the extra space for him to launch himself. He looks like a cross between SpideyMan and Zorro to me.

[Jack Breakfast]

Ha! Zorro to be sure!

[laurie golden]

Jack,

This is a very artful composition so I like it a lot. You call it a dancing butcherbird which caught my eye and I thought I would find a connection with a shrike but can't find it. Shrike or butcherbird it is lovely.

[Jack Breakfast]

Laurie, it's my great pleasure to inform you that the shrike (northern shrike, in this case) is known also as "the butcherbird" because it is, technically speaking, a raptor: it catches mice and lizards and small birds (!) and insects and impales them on the thorns and brambles and so on. AKA, at least to me, as "the raptorial songbird" and a fine song he has! An amazing bird, to be sure...

[denise ippolito]

Jack, I like the pose, the image design and the subject. I might crop a small amount of the right side if it were mine but that is a personal preference.

[Dennis Bishop]

The simplicity makes this a very appealing image. I like the square format, but I agree with Denise's suggestion about cropping from the right. Cropping the same amount from the right and the top would keep the square format and -- in my opinion -- would enhance the composition.

[Jack Breakfast]

Many thanks, fine folks!