Hey! I'm just out of the shower!by
ZorbaTheGeekComment by stare_at_the_sun: Greeting from the Critique Club!
The first thing that I notice about your photo is the bird obviously, but then my eye travels straight to the upper left corner where there is a bright spot then to the upper right corner where there is a dark spot. This could of been solved simply by cropping right below the dark spot on the right. Also this would of placed the bird in the rule of thirds vertically, as right now he is about the same distance from the top of the frame to the bottom of the frame.
Other than a different crop, there's not much that you could of done better here. The colors are gorgeous, the blues and the browns work perfectly together to give that "feeling" of a cold wintry day. The focus is great although, as you said in your description, it could be just a little sharper. I personally like the DoF here, it makes the viewer pay more attention to the eye and head of the bird than to the rest of the photo. It would be interesting to see this same photo with a bit more DoF though, to see if it made a difference or not. The composition works here, but as I said before, a different crop would of helped a little. You have the bird in the right hand side, abiding by the rule of thirds, this works great. The lighting is also good, I like the bright part of the rock that is around the birds head. I think this makes it stand out even more and really emphasizes the subject of your photo.
I really really like this shot, taking photo's of birds can be a hard thing to do, but I think you excecuted this wonderfully. Congrats and good luck!
Photographer found comment helpful.
