cropping question

[Hazel Grant]

Took this about 8 am this morning. I cropped it a bit because of some extraneous stuff on the right. I am wondering, compositionally, if the flower on the left adds a sense of depth and should therefore stay, or should I crop closely and eliminate all but the bird and feeder? Also, is this some kind of finch? Other comments?

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Hazel, I'm pretty sure that is a House Finch - female. She is loving the nyjer seed! To my eye, the vegetation on the left dwarfs the little finch (it is bigger) in the image and draws my eye away from it. The white fence (?) under the feeder also steals attention from the bird - don't forget that the eye follows light. Mixed light on the finch makes for a difficult exposure recipe. You were correct in protecting the whites, but due to the mixed light the shadows get lost. I would suggest cropping from the left, filling in the bottom of the image with the blue bg, and bringing up the black levels a bit.

[Joel Eade]

I agree with Kerry, the brightness of the flower and the fence pull your eye away.

If you can sort of stare at the image without focusing on it you will see he means.

I know that sounds weird but the bright spots immediately draw your attention that way....so you can see how to fix them.