birds Woodpecker

I am not a fan of bird or nature photos, but it doesn't matter. I'm trying to give you some technical critique.

On this photo all elements melt into one another, without proposing any clear separation between its different elements. All of them melt together. Also the tones are flat. It looks out of focus.

I am not able to understand whether it depends on the lighting, on the postprocessing or on the enlargement of the subject.

Marvin,

I really like the composition, (that's what caught my attention) and the Woodpecker's unusual circumstance of feeding on the small branch and into the broken end of the branch.

It appears however that you missed the focus. The details in the leaves look to be the focus point and it should have been on or near the birds eye.

I also think that maybe stopped down a bit could have taken some of the "flatness" out of the image, but the main problem appears to be the focus point.

Just my .02 worth,

Best wishes,

Jim j.

The lack of perfect focus is a fair comment. The reasons are varied. 1) Woodpeckers are frequently pecking very fast, 2) it's a hand held shot, 3) I'm using a 50D with a 100-400mm lens and shooting almost vertically and the camera is therefore heavy and my arms were tired. But I thought that the position of the bird and its activity warranted demonstrating.