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ColeyComment by buck4free: GREETINGS FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB.... or something like that...
Well, I see you scored a 5.1 on this shot. Quite frankly, Im surprised. I would have rated this at a 4 or so....
The most impressive aspect of this shot is the capture of the bird. His (or her!) wings are caught in full spread, a very powerful looking pose. The feathers are perfectly spread out and are a little blurry, but judging buy the shutter speed, that couldnt have been helped.
So the bird is amazing.... but unfortunately, the whole rest of the shot detracts from this.
COMPOSITION: I think you could have obtained a better crop by cutting some of that vertical post our of the picture. If not removing it entirely, at least get rid of the small shred of sky to the left of the post. Same thing with the top of the shot. I think the post that angles down into the top of the frame is distracting. I think the composition is the main thing that kills this picture. Next time try to obtain a setup that you would want to look at even without a bird, then wait for it to fly into the shot and SNAP!
FOCUS: As others have mentioned, the shot kind of feels out of focus. The trees in the background definately, and at an aperture of 7, thats how it should be. I think if you dropped the aperture even lower, making the background completely out of focus, it'd draw even more attention to the bird and house, and then the trees wouldnt be distracting us at all.
In sum, next time pay more attention to how all the elements in your shot are framed before you make the shoot. Try to get an arrangement that looks pleasing to the eye BEFORE the bird gets involved, that way when you get a great capture of a bird such as this, you dont have several background elements distracting from it.
Photographer found comment helpful.