Chickadee - is this any good?

I'm new to bird photography and have just shot a few of my friendly feathered friends. This chickadee was eating bugs on the aspen tree by my office window. Not ideal conditions but I liked the result. Please feel free to comment and criticize

Thanks for looking,
Dan

Not too bad . . . composition could be strengthened by having the bird less centered. At F/3.2, your DOF was insufficiently adequate as the tail feathers are OOF. With the bird at this angle to the camera, you should easily be able to capture enough DOF to get the whole bird in focus. There appears to be some blown highlights in the backside head feathers, which is always a tough thing when shooting Chickadees.

One thing is for sure, with practice and persistence, you'll be nailing these guys soon!

Thanks AJ - I noticed the tailfeathers but I didn't see the blown out feathers until you mentioned it.

My composition is due to me using the center focus point - a carry over from shooting hockey. My camera was set to +1EC and I didn't notice until later. I am really pleased with the sharpness and I'm having a ball shooting birds.

Dan

Were you shooting through the glass? It's a nice picture, but it needs more saturation or Shadows.

Hey Dan, Needs to have a little more POP I would say add saturation and contrast

canonloader wrote in post #3191078
Were you shooting through the glass? It's a nice picture, but it needs more saturation or Shadows.

No glass - I get enough of that during hockey season The light was very interesting. Very bright but there was a thin layer of clouds.

hTr wrote in post #3191213
Hey Dan, Needs to have a little more POP I would say add saturation and contrast

Thanks Gary. I think the light washed the colors a bit. I had bumped the saturation but forgot to apply it when saving the small jpeg posted here.

I'll keep trying!

Dan

It's all there PS can bring it out quite a bit.
Rob.