Some early Fall color here in the Pacific Northwest. I am still seeing quite a few Juvenile Goldfinches, almost all appear to be female. I am not sure at what stage the males develop the black plumage on their crowns.
Excellent detail in both birds, David, and I love the hint of fall colors in the background. So far as I know, there’s no real way to determine the sex of the juveniles. They all look very much alike. The males will start showing their colors when they go into their adult plumage in the spring… The females will also change from this golden brown to a more yellow shade and the wing bars will go from tan to white.
I think a touch more canvas on the left would be nice. With the relative positions of these two, I think you could pretty much center the vertical stem. I’m not sure what a cure would be, but the chopped off end of the perch that’s end on to the viewer is a bit of an eye magnet.
Hi David, I agree with the comments about a little more room on the left and the brightness of the broken off end of the perch being attracting to the eye. But when I look at the big version of the repost I see cloning artifacts around the end of the stem that are obvious in the larger post. Also, where you cloned over the circular section on the main stem it isn’t too hard to see the repetition of the bark texture. Both of these can be corrected with some cleaner cloning. I don’t find the circular mark on the main stem distracting. And I might suggest burning the end of the branch rather than cloning.
All that aside, the overall comp is good and the birds look nice and clean. Pretty shot.
