Jay

Lovely detail to have been taken through the window Geoff. I am not normally keen on such distinct two-tone backgrounds but think this works as the blue sky picks out the blue on the Jay's wing.

great pose and i like the perch but the twotone background doesn't work for me

Your windows must be very clean i couldn't have got that through mine, mind you i could only photo the houses at the back and ive been warned about that!

Lovely shot of as you say a very timid bird.

Excellent detail in the bird and the background sets in context and shows the habitat without being distracting, a lovely image

Hello Geoff.

Lovely capture, great detail and Iove the colour in this, and the background is fine for me.

Sharp beak to tail and a nice pose obtained here Geoff.Colours look very accurate.

The BG is ok for me as the blue sky sets the Jay off nicely. Are all your windows this clean Geoff?

Bob

The detail is astonishing considering it was taken through a window. I think the background works as well, although perhaps we have all managed to forget in recent weeks what those vibrant summer colours looked like!

David

Works OK for me. Having the subject crossing the horizon line is generally something to avoid, but here I think it works. Since there is so little detail in the background, especially since the colours are so strong, I think that the subject placement helps to connect and integrate the two background elements.

difficult comp really , bird appears a touch too central , I can see why ,, BG is not for me although nice and sharp subject with the contrasty light handled well... So when's that D3 getting a proper outing ?

Thanks everyone

Mark, I've been struggling a bit with the 200-400 on my D3 and have just spent all afternoon calibrating my lenses using a gadget called "Lens align Pro" that Phil, Paul and myself bought between us so hopefully I'll be ready now.

It's probably me but I seem to be getting much less DOF than I did with my old Sony crop sensor camera and it's taking me time to adjust.

Also I'm getting quite a strong cyan cast in the highlights, snow, breaking waves, light overcast sky etc so I've been tweaking the colour in the menu, I know that shouldn't have any effect on the RAW files but I'm hoping it will solve it, will try it out in daylight tomorrow.

As far as detail and sharpness go, I've had great results with the 200-400 and 70-200 without the 1x4 TC on but struggled with it on, I found today that they both needed focus adjustments with TC attached so hopefully I've got it all sorted and saved in my camera settings now and can start uploading some D3 images soon.

Geoff.

You make your own luck Geoffrey - and for me this is a cracking shot. I love the bright background and the detail on the Jay is superb.