Great tit: Being alert keeps you alive

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

Great tit: Being alert keeps you alive
Great tit: Being alert keeps you alive1829×1195 283 KB

The sunflower seeds, leftovers from the sunflowers in my garden, are popular food for greenfinches, goldfinches and tits. It is interesting to see the differences in behaviour. The finches often stay several minutes on the plant, while the tits are very aware of their position in the food chain: they land, look around, pick a seed within seconds and fly away immediately, to eat it in a safe place. Inspite of that, I sometimes find tit feathers and bones, the remains of a sparrowhawk’s meal.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I didn’t crop too much, because I want to leave some space to look in, for the bird. The BG was pretty saturated, so I decreased the saturation a bit.
What do you think?

Technical Details

Pentax K5, Sigma 4/100-300mm + TC1.4 @420mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO1600.

1 Like
2

Han :

Very nice frame. This is an excellent example of an aesthetically pleasing avian image with the bird small in the frame. Nicely done.

3

This is a beautiful photo. I agree with @Keith_Bauer whole heartedly. It adds to the story to see the size of the bird against the sunflower. I love the colours too. I somehow want the bird to pop out just a bit more…not sure if that is brightening the bird a bit (I don’t know if that’s contrast? or vibrance? or???) or toning down the background a bit more. Again this is beautiful.

4

They’re like our nuthatches and chickadees who rarely linger at the feeder and are in and out-makes it tough to photograph them. Good look at the bird and the image definitely tells a story. I like the background. The bird seems a bit centered; perhaps a crop from the left to remove the (?) dead leaf.

5

Hello, Han, as Keith I appreciate the small bird in the frame as well, and it emphasizes the size of the sunflower as well. Nice story about the picking order as well ! Groet, Hans

6

Thank you @Robena.Sirett , @Keith_Bauer , @Hans_Overduin and @Allen_Brooks for your comments. Appreciated as always.
I’ll play a bit with your suggestions and maybe repost the resulting image. Thanks again.