Female Purple Martin Take-off

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Our Purple Martins are arriving. Usually they’ve arrived by the 12th, but this year we had three yesterday (the 13th) and today there are at least seven. I went out to heck on the numbers this morning and took the camera along. I was lucky enough to catch this lady taking off from one of the perches above the gourd rack. They come with aluminum rods, which are pretty disgusting photographically, so I usually gather some dead branches to zip tie to some threaded rod I substituted for the aluminum. However, we got in a hurry this year, so I just grabbed some bamboo that was lying around the garage.

Specific Feedback

How’s the framing? Is the bamboo too much of an anomaly?

Technical Details

Sony A1, FE 200-600 + 1.4 TC @ 840 mm, monopod, f/9, 1/1600, iso 2500. Noise reduction with DxO PureRaw 4, further editing in LR & PS CC (cropping, raising shadows and lowering highlights and microcontrast enhancement on the bird). Cropped to 5120x3616. Taken at 7:30 a.m.


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Very nice!! Excellent detail and sharpness and an unusual “pose”. The bamboo is OK but a crop from the right would minimize it. Or it wouldn’t be difficult to just remove it.

Hi Dennis, a fine catch and a great pose. Wonderful sharpness throughout. The bamboo is alright but I could see maybe darkening it some.