I liked this mainly because it’s a first. I’ve gotten totally useless shots of this species at Nisqually NWR, but this one showed up in my little copse along with the rest of a mixed mob last Friday. It didn’t come to water, but it wound its way up the tree behind the pools twice. This was the only place it paused.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
I’m aware that the image quality isn’t quite what I’d like. I suspect I had a bit of camera motion.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
This kind of image is always difficult for me. I find it hard to figure out where to put the bird horizontally in the frame and how much of the trunk to include.
Any pertinent technical details:
7D mark II, Sigma 150-600 Contemporary, tripod with ball head and Sidekick, f/8, 1/125, iso 3200, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1 EV (left over from shooting chickadees against a dark background). Processed in LR (color temperature, general exposure level and some touch up at the end using the local adjustment brush) and in PS CC for creating separate layers for the bird, tree and background and adjusting them independently. Texture in the bird and tree accented using Topaz Detail. Cropped to 7.9 MP vertical from a horizontal original. Taken at 11:12 am on August 31st under cloudy skies.