On my morning bike ride I saw tons of Cedar Waxwings, both adults and juveniles enjoying the berries from this tree! And flying to other trees to watch the sunrise!
Anything
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400, 300 mm, 1/1250, ISO 800, f/6.3, cropped
Great timing, Vanessa. I love that the waxwing is just grabbing a berry. Very cool.
It is always exciting to get a nice bird in the frame and even more so when are doing something interesting, like eating. You captured a nice moment, but…
Composition matters, not just in landscape photography, or macro photography, or any other genre, it matters in avian photography.
My first reaction to the image was OK, but the bird is just dead center. Here’s a graphic illustration to show the point. Where the red lines cross is absolutely dead center.
A simple crop makes the image stronger. Even if the image were captured full frame with no cropping and attention was devoted to composition, the image would be stronger.
Thanks @Keith_Bauer for looking and your feedback! I totally see what you mean. Your crop does look a lot nicer. I guess it’s more interesting and pleasing to look at, is what I mean. I really like your improvement!
Hi Vanessa
My first impression of this photograph was how nature has provided the Waxwing the ability to blend into it background, giving it protection for any predator. There is alway value in letting the subject of a photograph have space to breath, but when subject is as well camouflaged as this Cedar Waxwing, a closer cropping may be in order. In your posting the viewer eye is brawn. to the Waxwing eye and beak, witch is almost dead center in the frame. By cropping in and moving the bird up in the frame, the viewer eye now travel to the Waxwing beak. I hope this shows that point.
Peter
Hi @peter , I definitely see now what both you and @Keith_Bauer mean! It’s much better not right in the middle and to have a closer crop makes the action of the bird eating stand out more! Thank you so much for looking and your feedback! I really appreciate it!
