Taking Off

Thanks!

Wonderful colors and lighting. Beautiful capture. Thanks for sharing.

This is a great picture. I like how the bird seems to match the rest of the shot (tail and head match the branch, wing matches the blue sky). My only gripe is that the shot seems a little cluttered.

very nice, though the background could be more blurred - it's kinda distracting. Cheers, Micheal

Jacob-

 

Your Waxwing photos have a wonderful color palette. They are well composed. What I find lacking in most of them is adequate detail due to a lack of sharpness. Viewers want to see details of the main subject, especially something as intricately textured and patterned as a bird. This particular photo is the best in terms of bird detail. I wonder if you are shooting at the maximum telephoto distance and cropping to get the bird large enough to command the photo. Capturing good detail on a small subject at distance requires killer telephoto capability. I see that you shoot with a Nikon D300 and 18 t0 200 lens. (I shoot with a Nikon D100 and have a Nikon 70 -300 lens.) That is great equipment, but you may be pushing the limits of the lens' capabilities for this type of photography. Compare the size of this subject with the grizzly bear and sunset shots which are excellent in detail. Also, be very careful of erasing texture and detail when using contrast and brightness adjustments in photoshop.

 

I really applaud your results; I wish I had been able to do this level of work as a senior in high school. Congratulations and keep on shooting.