Peek a boo!
by RulerZigzag

Comment by Ammie:
Lovely

Peanut nut
by RulerZigzag

Comment by pixelpig:
They have such pretty feathers, which you captured nicely. They do indeed love peanuts, Nice DOF on this, too.

Peek a boo!
by RulerZigzag

Comment by Luciemac:
What a wonderful portrait. If only she were "obscured" (for challenge only). This is truly lovely.

Beautiful Bugger
by RulerZigzag

Comment by jnenvir:
Not sure how this is a pet peeve. Nice shot

Wild and Free.
by RulerZigzag

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Wow, he looks so much like the guy I called Big Red, who lived around my house some 5 years ago...now he looked like he could rip your finger off, and not mind doing so :-)

Nice shot of the cardinal but whatever that big white thing (feeder?) he is perched on just fights him for all the attention. Red, white and black are the three colours that extras in films and movies are told to avoid bringing to set (unless specifically told to do so or as outfitted by Wardrobe) as they are all colours that grab the eye. Here you have two of those colours, in approximately equal doses and on the same side of the shot...you can see where things are going. If you have a dark or neutral coloured object for him to perch on, so his redness pops in the shot, then half the battle is won.

Feel free to PM me

Susan

The Thinker
by RulerZigzag

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that meets the challenge well.

A lot of people don't appreciate the power of a title, you obviously do. Your apt title gives the image a desirable and amusing interpretation and transforms it from being rather awkward and inelegant into something quite amusing. He may be cogitating on the demise of those poor little frogs, though I rather doubt it! As for the image itself the moment is well timed and exposure good with good technique to isolate it effectively from the background and composition is good. All in all a great entry Tony, well done.

The Thinker
by RulerZigzag

Comment by tnun:
the (apparent) thought that counts.

The Thinker
by RulerZigzag

Comment by EchoElin:
This photo makes me smile. He's quite the thinker :)

Male Northern Cardinal
by RulerZigzag

Comment by ivale28:
Seems to be lacking a little in sharpness, but great capture!

Young Robin
by RulerZigzag

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that does not meet the challenge

This is a lovely bird study but in terms of the challenge brief of 'raking light' I don't think it fulfils it, the light is shining directly on the bird's back, in order to meet the challenge it would need to be at a lower directional angle with the shadow at a more oblique angle. I do like your shot as a straightforward bird shot but with the sun at the correct angle the lovely feather detail would have featured more prominently and enhanced the end result. He certainly stands out well against the dark, soft focus background.

Thanks for your entry Tony, sorry you didn't get any comments during the challenge, I hope this makes up for it.