Scrub at Feeder

I caught this CA scrub jay landing at my backyard bird feeder recently. I had set out some peanuts in the shell and both the stellar’s and the scrub jays go crazy grabbing and promptly burying them.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I am currently enjoying my new, expanded ability to capture action with my new Z9. I thought the last moment of this guy landing was cool. I also like how the actual feeder apparatus was not in the image. Cropping okay?

Technical Details

Z9, Nikon 200-500 lens, monopod, 1/2500th, F 7.1, 300mm, ISO 2200, cropped to 2015 x 2397, Photo AI

I really like the frozen action here! Spread wings, landing gear and flaps down. That little angle makes all the difference so we can see more of that back wing. The sun is lighting those up nicely, too. Maybe some of the highlights in the branch it’s going in on could be lowered. The bg is nicely softened for the most part. Such vivid blue. Must be fun to watch these guys. Corvids are so interesting and feisty.

Well executed, Dave. You caught this guy at exactly the right moment. I agree with @Kris_Smith that highlights in the branch could be lowered and perhaps the bird’s head brightened a bit. Those are picky little points, however. It’s extremely nice as presented. Crop looks good to me.

Nice action shot. Hopefully unsalted peanuts.

Oh, yeah, and raw too.

Nice action shot, Dave. For future reference, this might be better in the regular Avian forum as the hand of man doesn’t show in the image (a fine line there).