Feather Ball

Too cute. Great capture.

Beauty, Howard, I like the fluffed up feathers and beautiful bg. 

Well taken!  Great look at the black crested titmouse, like the BG sets the bird off very well.  Thanks for shairng.

Looks as though it stepped out of the bath here. ............a neat scene, Howard.

Excellent all around with all the surrounding elements in view complimenting the image very nicely. .....

Looks like it's been in the bath, Howard.  Nice pose, perch and bg and a great head turn.  Well done.

The Titmouse is excelent, Howard. I'm not sold on the crop, however. The vertical stem renders the right 1/3 of the frame as dead space that draws attention from the bird. Perhaps a more traditional vertical crop might work or a slight repositioning to the right. I know cropping is always a personal choice, but just a thought.

Cool find.

Hi Howard,

I like the puffy presentation of the titmouse with the peach colored flanks.  The catchlight in the eye is very nice.  I can see detail in the black crest in the larger version..........................Jim

Really cool capture Howard. That soft light on the Titmouse is sweet, great background too. Nice work!

The little guy gets a 10+ on the cute scale, Howard. Good enough that it commands the frame. Otherwise, I would have to fuss about the vertical and bulky stem down the right side. But cropping to exclude it would leave the bird centered in the vertical crop. Cloning the stem out might work, but tougher than it looks and might just lead to a big mess. Cute is good enough. I would leave it alone.

That is certainly a crest! Tops out the cute factor. I wish that big, blocky vertical stem wasn't there, but you can only photograph what the bird gives you. The cute factor nearly wins out.

My initial thoughts on the comp were that even with the neg space RT, the bird was neatly 'framed' by the branches, including the large vertical of course.. Bird was were it was supposed to be in the frame, so I went with it.

So after further review, I offer the new & improved version

Technique: For those of you who are interested in the method. (Using Adobe CS4)

I used the healing brush tool (replace), grabbing canvas to the immediate RT at the large stem diameter, moving top to bottom.

Then the patch tool, grabbing the whole mess & cloning from the RT.

Then some brush work to touch it up.. The whole process took about 5 minutes..

Have a great week
 

Beautiful image of this cute bird all fluffed up!  I think the second version is an improvement. Thank you for sharing your technique for removing the large stem!  That's exactly the kind of thing I've been wanting to learn. 

Excellent catch, Howard.  Are you starting a birdie "feather salon"?

Interesting comparison with the "before" and "after".  Guess I'm wierd, but I wasn't bothered at all by the vertical stem.  There is some added simplicity in the version without it.

Very nice head turn and good placement of the bird in the frame. I am opposed tot he comp including the big stem, but glad I read further down before finishing my writing and LOVE the repost. Very nice work Howard.

The framing works better for me in the second version, Howard, but I would be happy with either in my files. 

Good work.

Excellent job Howard.

Somehow I overlooked this image earlier Howard - priceless pose and bird ! Repost works very nicely indeed ! Cheers, Hans

What a cutie Howard, love the fluffed up pose and the rich bg.

Too cute! Love this shot Howard, the detail is great and I love the fluffed up feathers. You nailed this!  Ray

Great shot!  Like the repost better, very well done.

Howard, this is a sweet shot.  Your website is a stunner.  The body of your work gives me inspiration and aspirations.