Rework Lowering bird in the frame and cropping along the left side and a slight crop up top
Image Description
When I was down in San Diego a few weeks ago shooting the pelicans, I came across this hummer just sitting on a bush with a great background. When he turned his head just the right way, the iridescence was pretty nice. When he turned just a little bit in the other direction it completely disappeared. I got about 10 seconds worth of images before he turned around, giving me the cold shoulder. About ten feet beneath him on the edge of the cliffs were dozens or hundreds of pelicans and cormorants.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I’m just wondering if the bird is too centered?
Interesting pose or not?
Technical Details
Z9, 100-400mm lens @400mm, ISO 1250, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, manual mode, hand held
Hi David
It’s a great pose! I especially like the curvature of its back going down and merging with the branch. It’s as if he’s sitting in the middle of a “V”.
Since you asked, I would crop down from the top a little, just a tad.
You caught this wonderfully. Congrats.
Oh that flash of pink. Really striking. I hope the ladies like it, too. So very glad you saw him and he gave you a cheeky pose. What a wee jewel. You could pull him down and to the left slightly and see if that works. I like the space for him to gaze up into. Can’t wait for ours to be back. Couple of months.
Great pose and you caughtthe gorget in full glory, David. For my taste it could use either a bit less space on the left or more on the right. Since the perch goes out of focus toward the bottom, I could see Kris’ suggestion of taking a bit off the bottom, but you’d have to be real careful not to make it too tight down there. A beautiful image of this jewel.
The pose works well to show off the gorget and the detail is excellent. I’ve found it problematic to position a bird that is essentially diagonal in the frame without centering the bird. I could see cropping a bit off the left, though. The fact that the bird seems to be looking at you, for me, would not need to add room on the right.
Thank you @Mark_Muller , @Kris_Smith , @Dennis_Plank , @Allen_Brooks for your comments and suggestions. When I get home tonight I’ll try and apply some of those suggestions in an edit to see if that helps with the composition. It’s what’ been bothering me about the image. Thanks again for your thoughts.
Love this, in addition to the comments shoot composition, and since it’s not a real standard pose, you could probably get away with tilting it a little help the composition
