Mockingbird

Hi Sharon: The pose you have is very nice. Not an ideal perch, but still a nice pose with the head turned nicely. Pleasant background. The details in the bird look like they have been compromised. The image doesn't feel quite sharp. Did you have to bring up the brightness of the bird in post processing? With this lighting, it would have been an ideal time to use a little fill flash to deal with the subject.

Hi Sharon! This is a very compelling pose (perfect for the species IMO) and wonderfully dramatic background. The colours, tones and contrast are fantastic. I also love the view of the bird's claws, and I personally like the wrapped vines (though would be tempted to remove the intruding branch mid-frame on the left and the snippet in the top right corner). I love the head-turn, open beak and expressive eye.

I'll leave the suggestions specific to photographing avian subjects to some of our resident avian experts here on NPN, but I will suggest that the IQ seems to be a little less than optimal, and specifically appears to have some movement issues, either subject or camera. As I use a D7100 as a backup body and Jenaya uses one almost exclusively, I can attest to the fact you can certainly push the ISO up and still get excellent results with that body. I think the combination of extremely dense pixels and very slight movement (i.e. shutter speed was not sufficient to absolutely freeze the moment) has taken the edge off here. That's one thing us photographers have had to adapt to in recent years with increasingly high resolution sensors...a 24MP ASP-C (crop/DX) sensor means a lot of photo sites in a very, very small area so minor movement means big consequence. Of course, increasing the ISO means decreasing the dynamic range, which in this case would be a very high priority to maintain! Still, I'm betting an increase to ISO 640 or 800 would have done the trick. Another option would be using fill-flash with a diffuser in situations like this (a whole other exciting area of nature photography to explore!).

All this assumes you were either hand-held or on a monopod and that your lens did not have VR engaged (which, if engaged, really should have handed this at 1/500). If you were on a tripod, make sure everything is snugged down tightly and the legs and head are adequate to support this focal length. If you were not on a tripod and did have VR engaged, I've found pressing the shutter release halfway down to activate the VR and waiting for at least a second for it to settle and "learn" your movement pattern often produces MUCH better results.

I did look through your other avian images and would suggest all are very nice but could all be improved with just a little better shot discipline. I'm sure you've heard of the 1/focal length rule, which with a DX camera would mean 1/1.5X focal length as a general guideline for hand-holding longer lenses (so 1/600sec here). HOWEVER whether you have the "old" D version of the 80-400 or the newer and much-improved G version, both lenses' VR system should address that.

Whew I should have stopped at "Nice shot!" but now that I'm on a roll, most non-prime (and even many prime) telephotos will yield better results in terms of sharpness and acuity if stopped down a bit from their maximum aperture. If this is the older version of the 80-400, I'd suggest at least f/8 whenever you can afford it. I know the new lens is pretty fantastic most of the way through the focal range wide-open, but can benefit from stepping down to f/6.3 or 7.1 at 400mm. Just a little more food for thought next time you're out.

Finally, I'm wondering if this is a fairly substantial crop? If not (and even to a degree, if so), it looks like just a little tighter shot discipline would take this from very, very nice to absolutely superb. I genuinely find this to be a highly attractive and compelling image, so don't let my rambling exploration of possible improvements lead you to think otherwise!

If this is the old 80-400, I never shot it under f/6.3. It has a sweet spot at about 370mm also. The head looks soft; I would guess your POF was the right shoulder. Nice light!

Nice pose you captured here Sharron. You have received some good feedback already. With the bird in shade and that background bright it's an ideal time to use fill flash. Shooting this at iso 800 would have allowed you to stop down a little bit and get more shutter speed.

A very nice pose, Sharron. I agree with Keith's comments on the sharpness. I don't mind the perch, though I think I'd be tempted to rotate the image to straighten the horizontal (though that would probably make the verticals lean a bit).

One more comment: I would clone away that twig on the left. Should be fairly easy to do.