Northern Cardinal

Any and all comments/critiques welcome. Thank You! = (:->) Take only

Pictures - Leave only Footprints - Kill only Time.

PDE

1200mm? That's a lot of horsepower to be sure, though I will upon occasion use a 600mm f/4 Nikkor with a TC-14B and cheat by going from FX to DX on the D700, which gives me 1260mm f/6.3, so I really don't have any room to talk :-)

 

This is a very good, up close and personal image of one of the most beautiful birds (in my mind at least) in our country. I spot a catchlight in it's eye, did you use fill flash? It does add a bit of sparkle to the image.

 

The background, however, is somewhat busy with the dead vegetation and the deeper (everything is relative of course) depth of field renders it sharply enough to be distracting. The cardinal must have been practically right in front of it. I blurred it a fair amount with box blur and darkened and vignetted it to minimize it. What do you think?

 

Hello Scott I thank that it's mostly personal preference but looking at your version of it with a little difference in lighting that also looks good . And you are right it is one of the most beautiful birds (in my mind also) .