Meadowlark

All the techs look on target to give you a stellar image.The background is great and the exposure looks good also. However, to me, it looks a bit soft. it could be that your Tamron lens is not super sharp at the full 600mm. Most lens aren't the sharpest at their max focal length. I would experiment with a test pattern and see where your lens is the sharpest.

Thanks Jerry. You have told me that in the past and I have tried to limit the lens to no more than 500mm, but I just forgot all about it this morning. I need to make myself a stop on the lens so I can't go past a certain number. Thanks for the critique. Believe it or not, I'm listening.

Greg,

You might also experiment with different aperture settings. They can also affect sharpness. I have a Canon 100-400 lens that I used extensively before I got the Canon 200-400. It was a good all around lens, but it wasn't super sharp at all focal lengths and apertures. I found out that my 100-400 was sharpest around f11. Now, that doesn't mean I exclusively used it at that aperture, but it was a good thing to know.

Bottom line is shoot enough to really know your lens in and out. Then you can take advantage of its strengths and minimize your usage in areas where the lens is weak.

Jerry

Hi Greg,

I think Jerry covered what you need to do to improve your next series of photos. Work on that lens to figure out the sharpest focal length and get the technique figured out. On what you have displayed here, background, colors and lighting are very nice. Your crop also produced a pleasing composition
..........................................Jim

Good looking bird with a great background -- a little too much room on the left -- might look good as a vertical

Thanks Jim and Scott for your input. I will be working on understanding that lens better and will hopefully get some even sharper shots in the future. I posted a vertical crop at Scott's suggestion. Not bad, but I think I still prefer the original.

Thanks guys