Brewer's Blackbird and Elephant Seal, San Simeon, California

An original background: composition is really nice.

The only flaw I can find is the rock in the foreground out of focus that distract me a little bit from the bird and the Seal.

I totally agree with Vincenzo.   I'm thinking you could clone out the blurred foreground and have one superb image.  Beautiful image.

Thanks Vincenzo and John, 

Interesting, I had done two crops of this shot and actually liked the foreground blur (it's actually sand and not a rock). To me it helped frame the bird, but maybe you're right. Attached is the horizontal crop with most of the blur cut out.

http://seancrane.com/blogphotos/brewers_blackbird_2011_3.jpg

Great angle Sean! I agree with the previous comments that the foreground obstacle is a bit distracting. Your alternative crop takes care of that, but could be stronger if it frames the seal's head tighter on each side, as in your original crop.

Haha, funny shot. Technically not the best through the noise and front rock, but really great moment :)

Thanks Wendy,

But check it out at full size. Not much noise, just what would be expected on D300 at ISO 800. When photo.net shrinks the size of the original photo it creates jpeg artifacts, especially around the outline of dark areas against light. Maybe that's what you're seeing. I suppose I should start posting at the size that photo.net specifies before clicking for a larger view. 

Simply wonderful in every way.

-O