Griffon Vulture

Image Critiques
1

Griffon Vulture
Griffon Vulture3691×2076 183 KB

Critique Style: Standard

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

Sometimes you have to go with what the camera gives you. I had all the wrong settings when this bird appeared and prepared to land. This was the result of shooting 1 stop under with a strong backlight!!
I initially put it into the “problem” pile in Lightroom, (It’s a big pile), but then yesterday decided to make the most of what I had because I really like the way that the legs are hanging down.
This was taken in Spain, in the Cuenca Natural Park just east of Madrid, we don’t have vultures in the UK and this was a great opportunity for me to see them and I wanted to get as many useable shots as possible. It needed a bit of work to get rid of a sensor smear that had appeared, and the background has been tweaked for a stronger effect.
I quite like it now.

Feedback Requested

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed

Technical Details

Olympus OM-1
Olympus 100-400mm @ 400mm
f/13
1/1000 sec

2

Hi Ryan, this image has a bit of a haunting feel to me given the dark clouds and near silhouette of the bird. Strikes an interesting mood.

3

As @Allen_Sparks noted, Ryan, this image has an interesting mood with that somber sky. I am a bit ambivalent about the small size of the bird in the frame, but I’m looking at this on a pretty small monitor, so that could be part of the issue. While the posture of the bird and dangling legs imply landing and food below I do think it might be more effective with a bit tighter crop.