My husband drove us up to the Wildlife Refuge in Monte Vista tonight after he got home from work so I could take some pictures for the Bokeh Challenge. We went up yesterday, too!! I was hoping to get a picture of a Sandhill Crane with lots of other cranes in a blurry background - well, it just wasn't to be. Yesterday when we went to the refuge all the cranes were in a farm field outside of the refuge there was really only one good vantage point to get a picture of them and another lady was already there with two cameras. We drove through the refuge and I got some pretty nice pictures of Redwing Blackbirds. This evening went back hoping to get a crane picture - well, the cranes were actually in the refuge this time but were too far from the road to get a good pic even with my 400mm lens. You can't get out of your car when you drive though so I couldn't get any closer. Anyway, I got some more Redwing Blackbird pictures. Edited another one and kind of like how it turned out better than the first one so used it instead. The bokeh in the first one was actually better but this one has a more "finished" feeling to it.
I love how this bird is posed - it looks like it's lost in some personal reverie.
Editing: Crop, adjustment layers for levels & curves; flatten; hue/saturation- increase red & yellow; noise removal with Helicon Noise Filter; resize; smart sharpen; save for web.
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The 'bokeh' compliments and enhances the main subject - it's not 'dramatic' but that's not its purpose - it supports the main image beautifully. A great image - i had it a lot higher up - well done.
Sammie, You won't believe this, but I knew this was yours and also it was one of my top three finishers. Great shot again. You are doing so well these past months. I need some lessons from ya, I'm kind of stuck in the 4s & 5s lately. Best wishes, your Cornish Cousin, Van
I like this but I think it suffers from what many others do in that it's cluttered. If there were just the single cotton stalk with the bird, it would have better composition, but in a natural setting, unless you go out there with a pair of scissors, cutting down things, then the bird wouldn't be there. LOL. It has a blurred background, but not seeing it really adding to the shot. You could almost crop it so that the bird were much larger, and you'd lose all of the white fluff to the left, and I think it would be more cleaned up and have more eye appeal. Hope this is helpful.
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