Redtail Hawk--Looking for Advice on Composition

[ErikT72]

I know it is desirable to get the entire bird in the shot, especially the talons in the case of raptors. This hawk posed for me on a low fence post the other day, and though in my excitement I fired off the first burst in landscape orientation, I was able to switch to potrait orientation for several frames(one of which I posted here) and got plenty of usable shots. For some reason though, I like the bird's look and the background better in this shot, even though the lower part of the bird is cut off. Is this crop distracting to the point that it ruins the shot? Looking for honest opinions here since I really want to improve as a photographer. Thanks in advance,
Erik

[canonloader]

I would have cropped more off the top and either add enough at the bottom to include the whole bird, or chopped it off about half way down his wing for a real closeup.

[avwh]

I'm still a novice at this as well, but it won't keep me from commenting.

You've got nice bokeh & coloring for a background. But I agree with Mitch - best composition would be to tighten the crop to mid-wing to focus the viewer on the hawk's head (that also keeps the best complementary coloring IMO above his head).

[T.D.]

I recently went to a seminar put on by Arthur Morris (birdsasart.com) and he talked a lot about bird "portraits" and not being so caught up on whole body shots. I think he made some excellent points. Try cropping it even more and see what you come up with.

[Paul A]

I agree with the previous comments, beautiful shot here, but the crop should be in the eye of the beholder. The position of the head as is, really draws the viewer to the head.

[ErikT72]

Thanks for the tips/opinions. I'll play around with it a bit and see how it looks. Thanks again for the input,
Erik

[Samdiver74]

Great shot Eric, Again like every one else has said, eye is automatically drawn to the Hawks head so a closer crop is the only way to go in this case.