The Pigeon ---> is it any good?

[LaFoto]

Last Wednesday morning I was out and about early, and after a bit of plain landscape photography I tried to get somewhat better in photographing birds.
I am NO GOOD in photographing birds.
And my equipment isn't any good enough for this task, either.

But I felt challenged.
And saw this scene happening in front of me with this play of light and shadow from the woods through which the road goes.

Taken at the fully extended zoom (300mm - which is when the lens no longer produces tack sharp pics, I'm afraid), at ISO 1600 (I wanted to be ready for some pigeon-in-flight photos once this should decide to fly up), f11, 1/640 sec. (I put this through NeatImage later to kill the noise).

How do you like it. Is it just any silly pigeon pic?

I did not do any cropping to this at all, this is the size produced in the camera.

 

[BoblyBill]

I like this. It's in it's simplicity that speaks here. 1600 ISO? You did a great job getting rid of it. Is this taken on some sort of road? Just an idea for another time is to see if you can get one tire and head light comeing into the top while the pigeon is down at the bottom and is in the path of the car (not to get hit because hopefully it would fly away) to get somewhat of an action/danger shot.

 

[darkmatter]

i liked the pattern of the shadows.
it looks like the pigeon is about to fly. IMHO i think it will be more interesting if you crop this the other way giving headroom to the bird that is about to fly.

 

[blatalllic]

Looks peaceful.....I like this alot...the shadows are awesome

 

[hamburger]

Nice play of light and shadow!!!!

(You know I hate pigeons... don't you? The rats of the air... :-D)

 

[neea]

The shadows and light are very interesting.
I'd crop the bottom off a bit. Maybe just below the real sunny part in the middle.
I decided yesterday when I saw a flock of pigeons that they're actually sort of pretty. Despite them being discusting and full of diseases

 

[Riggaberto]

Yeah I like this, I wish I understood the background, but that's a personal problem.

 

[darkmatter]

the background seems to be some concrete, a road or something.

 

[Alex_B]

The rats of the air... :-D

That is what I always say! And it is indeed true

 

[Alex_B]

i would really like this image as a horizontal crop, which gives the pigeon some space to stare into. tried a 3x1 crop or a 2x1 ?

the light is really nice here and the strong contrasts

 

[danir]

Great shot.
The light and shadow pattern is amazing.
I think like others that a horizontal crop might work. Maybe just above that big light area.

Dani.

 

[LaFoto]

Right, I divided this pic in halves and am now using a horizontal crop and the upper half (lower one would not have made much sense, eh ??), do you prefer this version?

It now no longer expresses the way I stalked this pigeon, tiptoing that stretch of road (it is a paved road, but hardly any cars going since it is only the access road to the walkways in the wood and a caravan park) ... which I think is expressed more by including that large amount of road in the frame as I originally did. But since the original photo was an all uncropped version, I still had enough room to try out the crop for you .

Now, however, the eye of the pigeon is smack in the centre of the frame. But totally and very!

 

[darkmatter]

better than the first one