Male Goldfinch

welcome aboard
nice start...

Nice first post Mike.
Welcome to NSN.

Welcome aboard, you'll love it here

Welcome! You'll meet here "the" experts of Bird photography. Nice first shot.

Welcome and a very nice first post Mike!

A good first post and a warm welcome to NSN, Mike!

Lovely capture and a very warm welcome! Look forward to seeing more

Sweet shot Mike. Can't wait for you to get some in better plumage now. Welcome to NSN!!

Welcome, nice first post

Great first post and many more to follow. Welcome aboard!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugh

Nice clean shot...pretty bird! Welcome!

nice first shot

Welcome a board - a very nice first post.

Great first post -welcome!

And yet another welcome!

I'm certainly not a real expert on bird photography (yet (or so I hope )), but I'll try to offer some critique anyways, hoping not to offend anyone.

I've noticed that perfect shots of perched birds (not doing very much) quite often get a lot of attention. Like I said, these images are quite often perfectly exposed, in focus and with lovely colours in the background etc etc. Unfortunately, not seldomly it's almost as if the bird is a hired (not too experienced) model who is obviously posing (if you know what I mean). In those cases the images really fail to grab me, just like a technically perfect human portrait without any obvious expression and bodylanguage, or a standard smile would (like the photo in your pasport). They might be great as ID images in a birdguide, but not so much as photos for an exhibition.

Hmmm... sorry for starting this potentially inflamable thought on your very first post here! It's something that's been going on in my mind for a while. I might better leave this point now and start a thread in the forums .

Anyways, I think your capture is quite well, but I miss a bit of behaviour to make it more special. It's really not as if I only like it when there is something vere special going on. Just a slightly tilted head for example can be enough.

Another point is the background. The colours there are rather cool and uncomplimenting for the colours in the bird. The fact that it is so out of focus is good though, because it doesn't take attention away from the bird too much then.

A last point is probably connected to the flash you used. I still have loads to learn about using a flashgun for birdphotography (for any kind of photography actually). Using flash in such a way that it's not clearly visible on the final image that you did is extremely difficult I think. In your image I think it is a little visible. The light on the bird seems rather flat and frontal, thus reducing detail in the plumage that might have been visible with more directional light. If this is only due to your flash, or also because of the present natural light is difficult to say for me.

Well... apologies once more for this huge nitpicking story. Maybe I should just go to the gym now and sweat the nitpicky mood out . Let me be clear and say that this image is quite nice as it is and that I would have been quite happy with it had I captured it only four months after I started taking birdphotography really seriously! Looking forward to more of your work as you learn!

Thanks for the critique, Art.

It's always nice to hear "great shot" or "excellent capture" and I really do appreciate those comments but it's also good to hear the other side. I'm not easily offended and I really do want to learn about this as fast as I can because I'm getting older as I speak and my goal is to take one good picture before I die.

The pose: I have many, many captures that I call "personality" or "candid" shots of my little feathered friends. I don't usually post them because they are not the "accepted norm" for this type of venue and usually generate few comments. The "perfect pose" shots are very rare and I believe that is the allure. I personally like the candid type better and so do most laypeople who look at my photos. Professionals and serious ameteurs usually prefer the type I posted, but not always.

Colors: I try to leave most of my shots the way nature presented them. I don't usually clone anything out unless it's terribly distracting or adjust colors to be vastly different than they were in real life. This may be a mistake but I just personally feel that a "doctored" image starts to be less a photograph and more "art".

Flash: The balancing act between camera exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation is a mystery of the universe for me right now. I have just started experimenting with these settings and I have a lot to learn. Any tips, tricks and advice is GREATLY appreciated. Most of my photos are taken at my home and the location, orientation and terrain force most of my captures to be either strongly backlit or sidelit so I have to really work hard to get a good exposure.

Thanks again for the comments. Feel free to e-mail me with off-line advice too.

Mike,

Very nice shot. It would work well as a vertical too. Hopefully you will have another opportunity with him in a few weeks when he is in full breeding plumage.

Welcome to NSN.

Great first post, Mike. Keep 'em coming.