What changed: Thank you @Diane_Miller, @Allen_Sparks, @Steffan-Foerster, and @Kris Smith for all of your encouragement and suggestions. I cropped, blurred the background and tried to make the color a bit more gradual, desaturated the bottom leaves so they aren’t so bright, brought out the color of the bird’s backs a bit.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
We are fortunate to have a returning hummingbird that has called our smoke bush its home! Mama was already used to us being around, and the babies got used to us, and our 90 pound labradoodle, walking by with the lawn mower, trash, and just sitting on the patio:o) This image was taken 2 days before the one on the right found his wings. The second was just 2 days behind that.
Feedback Requested
I’d appreciate any feedback. I’m wondering if I should crop more? I tried that but then the leaves felt too big.
Technical Details
Camera: NIKON Z 8
Lens: NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S
Focal length: 103mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000s
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 4000
Woah! This is terrific with them both looking back at you. I’ve only ever watched one nest in the yard and it waaaaaay up in an Ash tree so no chance for pics, but it was fun to watch through a spotting scope. I guessed these little ones were close to fledging before I read your description- they’re bursting out of that nest. Good thing mom makes it with spider silk for maximum stretch. I have a hummingbird nest that my husband found after the branch it was on broke. Far after nesting season so no casualties.
I think the crop works well - the framing and sort of peeking in view we get is very intimate and helps us feel their hidden nature. The head turn is wonderful and there is great detail in the birds and the nest. If you had a mind you could paint in a blur layer on the far background where there are some hard lines. I could also see lightening the darkest of the leaves. Terrific work!!
Lovely image, Holly! I like the combination of orange and green tones, those colors just fit really well together. And it was a great idea to create depth by shooting through the foreground rather than aiming just for a clean view of the nest.
I like the wide crop which emphasizes the small size of the birds but the gap in the green frame on the upper left edge leads the eye out of the image a little. I tried a vertical crop, which doesn’t really solve that but balances the opening line from the upper left and a similar opening on the right, though this disconnects the green frame on both edges which is not ideal either. Sometimes it’s worth going back through the burst and see if there is a frame from a slightly different angle that solves this.
The vertical crop gives more emphasis to the three intersecting lines formed by the branches, which helps defend the dead center placement of the subjects and strengthens the geometric aspect of the composition, which is another point for the vertical crop.
Finally, I think the background can be edited to be more uniformly orange and with a tad more contrast and balance between the left and ride side, and the greens could be brought out just a tiny bit. I did a quick edit example on how that could look like.
None of these suggestions are objective but I hope my reasoning helps you arrive at your own conscious judgment about what works for you and what doesn’t and what you might try next time. Cheers
Hi Holly, really terrific image! Love the crop with us peering through the leaves at such a hard to find treasure. Critical focus is spot on. A narrower aperture might have brought more of the birds in focus but this works fine as is IMO. Smoothing parts of the orange background maybe something to try but I think the baby birds and nest are such a strong component they command my utmost attention in the original version. A great find and well presented.
Allen_Sparks
(Allen Sparks)
selected this as an Editor's Pick
5
Terrific capture of a such a hard to find aspect of nature.
Wow!! A wonderful image of a wonderful subject! I hope they keep giving you chances like this – what a treasure!
Interesting points by @steffen-foerster above – I think you have a lot of flexibility here. I think a square crop could also work.
I missed seeing your two previous images so I’ll take this opportunity to welcome you to NPN! And congratulations on the EP – a well-deserved honor! I look forward to your participation here and hope you find it as wonderful as community as I do. It is a unique forum for sharing and learning.
I know this won’t be popular but I’ll say it anyway. I like the image as it is. I think there’s being way too much emphasis being placed on the darkness of this or the lightness of that. It’s like the image is more about post processing than the image itself. Just my 2 cents.
P. S. I think comments on the crop are valid to a point because different crops provide a different perspective of the same photo.
I have a similar although very different image I took on a sony A700 dslr many years ago 05182009 (I think I posted it here once). Anyway, it’s of a momma mourning dove with her two big babies in the nest. However, unless you looked close you could only see one eye of each baby. Besides being one of my favorites I though it was quite hilarious that the babies, as big as they were, were still in the nest. The nest was deep in a very beautiful spruce tree in my backyard. So deep I had to use very low powered fill flash to get a proper exposure.
Congrats on the EP. A wonderful shot and the revised version puts it over the top. The poses of the 2 hummingbirds works very and the crop makes the image more cozy with cuteness . …Jim
. …Jim