Pigeons are scarce around Paducah right now. This one was sequestered, secure on her nest, in a high, tight corner. She sat through several minutes of my invading her world, without a flinch at the flashes, studying me as much as I was studying her.
Crop
Sharpen
levels, brightness & contrast
dodged a bit on the eyes, upped yellow sat a bit, too
size & sfw
Statistics
Place: 11 out of 61 Avg (all users): 6.0794 Avg (commenters): 7.5000 Avg (participants): 5.9714 Avg (non-participants): 6.1006 Views since voting: 1494 Views during voting: 385 Votes: 214 Comments: 12 Favorites: 1 (view)
Hello and greetings from the Critique Club;
Of course, the first thing that grabs my attention in your photo and what is the focal point, is the bright eyes of the pigeon. The orange and yellow of the eyes have an excellent contrast with the gigantic black pupil. I can only imagine how bright the flash was for the bird! I’m also surprised how serene it still looks despite said flash, but I guess it is a pigeon, after all. You use of flash is pretty good here, and doesn’t seem terribly brutal. You have nice, sharp focus, and your colors are nicely saturated, especially in the case of the eyes, which are further accentuated by the fact that the entire frame is devoid of color, with them being the sole exception.
There are two minor nitpicks that this shot could benefit from, in my opinion though:
First, if you had used a faster lens, the distracting elements of the background’s lines and the sticks of the nest would have been blurred a bit more, bringing an additional focus to the bird (although as things are, they are blurred a decent amount). Secondly, it would have been nice if you had been able to get an angle other than straight up at the bird. This way, you might have been able to use the structure as some nice leading lines into the bird, regardless of whether you went with a centered composition or not. Your title was a good choice as well, adding some humor to the entry.
As your score showed, this was a pretty good entry and I had to pick out some minor things for room to improve.
-Derek
One of my favorites of the challenge. I love the eyes and the "expression". I guess birds faces don't really change that much. The title really fits and helps you apreciate the picture. Great shot.
This made me lol, Very nice image, a tighter crop would have been nicer for me, but good detail in the eyes, i love it! Also you get more points for making me laugh :P
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