I am a zoo guy. This was a pleasant stretch for me. COlumbus has a large numebr of metro parks around town. The kids and I went to one of them that has bird feeders right outside a window in their main building (even with microphones outside to pump the bird noises inside while you watch them) and also has more feeders down by a lake where you can hang out inside a small outbuilding to view. There were an amazing number of cardinals among other birds hanging out. I got so many good pictures that I really had a struggle as to which one to enter. This was a standout. I physically feel good and warm when I open this picture. Its clean, sharp, the bokeh rocks, the colors are very pleasing and the composition couldnt be better IMO. I am very pleased with this image. To the point that I think that this could score a high 6 of not a low 7. I would not normally make predictions like this on any shot of mine but I think its that good. Now watch me get dissappointed.
Editing - RAW conversion, NO CROP, auto levels and then that layers opacity dropped to 20%, soft light on duplicate layer and dropped to 20% or so and then erased off the bird, high pass sharpen, NI, USM, dodging and burning on the bird, and a slight saturation adjustment, resize for web, USM, and border.
Statistics
Place: 15 out of 218 Avg (all users): 6.8898 Avg (commenters): 7.8378 Avg (participants): 6.6373 Avg (non-participants): 7.0699 Views since voting: 2961 Views during voting: 551 Votes: 245 Comments: 50 Favorites: 11 (view)
One of the best songbird shots I've seen. Beautiful job Tim. Who would have thought a 6.8+ shot would end up 15th! Damn fine showing and a wonderful image. :-)
Tim, this one sure one I expected to see on the front page. Those different tones of red just blow me away. They're so rich and warm! A truly awesome photo!
Beautiful image here Tim, and you should be very proud of his one mate.....
Awesome DOF here in this one, and the focus on the bird, is excellent mate.....,
I gave this an extra point for the straight-on angle of the cardinal. it's a rare photo that allows us this perspective. Look at the square of black it creates! 7
The color of the bird really pops against the brown background and draws your attention right to its face. Like the composition. Excellent shot in my opinion.
Beautiful!!! Very nice color. Background is interesting and the bokeh is nice. I like how you kept the rule of thirds in mind when composing this image. I'm so glad he isn't smack dab in the middle of the pic. Good luck with the challenge!!!
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