He is spectacular! I can see the light reflected in his eye. The background does not detract from his splendor.   Posted: 05/02/2023 15:03:17

Very nice capture Dan. A very colorful bird and a great pose on the snag. Other than cropping just a little off the left side, I can think of anything else. I expect some would want you to crop the top some, but I like the fork produced by the limb. Great shot.   Posted: 05/03/2023 09:50:35

The depth of field on this shot really helps set off the bird and the tree!   Posted: 05/13/2023 06:55:35

Great capture. I couldn't resist pulling it into my tools for a bit of playtime. I flipped and cropped tighter to remove the noisy background and make it read left to right more. I then really overdid it: brought the exposure and contrast down almost a half stop, pushed up the midtones brightness and saturation a tiny bit. Then I futzed with the histogram tonal levels by pulling in highlight and shadows. (I don't use Adobe stuff but work in CaptureOne and this may help explain things more: https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002602797-The-Levels-tool-overview)   Posted: 05/24/2023 00:13:41

Here's the image with just the crop and flip.   Posted: 05/24/2023 00:14:08

Then a second export to show what adjusting the levels did to pull up the subject and darken down the background.
  Posted: 05/24/2023 00:14:30

Hi Dan. To me, photography is more of personal preference. In this case, I just like your original crop and edit. This is not a suggestion. But I would normally de-sharpened the tree a bit to allow my viewer eyes more on to the bird rather than the crispy tree. Just my humble two cents.   Posted: 05/24/2023 00:38:35