Asian Fairy Bluebird

Excellent pic. I really like the pose and eye contact. Nice background and the composition is wonderful. Dont know if its me but I see a small amount of noise on the bird. Other than that well done.

I'll be rapt to get something like this Ashley. Stunning detail and a great setting

cheers
Rob

I like the comp Ashley. A stunning looking bird with a great perch and BG. The high ISO on the 7D combined with the 50% crop has produced some noise in the bird, especially the tail area, that is a bit distracting to me. Overall a nice image if a cool bird.

Nice image and composition. Good eye contact! Congratulations

Striking bird with beautiful blues and I like the red eye. Pleasing, smooth back ground with just the perch in focus works well. I would run some noise reduction-it's certainly worth a little extra work.

what a great bird, Ashley! really like the pose and setting, and considering the ISO and crop, noise is not bad, not really at a level that bothers me. comp-wise if you have it I'd consider placing the bird a bit higher in the frame, giving him a bit more room to look down into.

Very nice especially considering the lack of light, Ashley! Great pose and expression. I like the way you placed the perch in the image. Nice background too. Thanks for sharing this.

A gorgeous subject with beautiful color. Great capture of that red eye. I like the dramatic pose accentuated by your choice of composition. Excellent image, Ashley.

Cool shot! Great detail, catchlight, and perch! It looks awesome in the larger version, and his colours really help him stand out from the background. I really like the composition!

Beautiful subject well captured. The detail in the large version is very nice. I don't find the noise Ron mentioned to be a distraction, but would agree that it would be stronger if he were a little higher in the frame. I had never seen one even in the guide books, so thanks for sharing this.

Sweet photo of this beauty Ashley

Ken Archer

Great pose and a beautiful job on the exposure and focus, Ashley. I might take a bit more off the right-it feels a little empty over there.

Many thanks for your feedback and kind words Robert, Rob, Ron, Marc, Angela, Brian, Govind, Dan, Jenaya, Rick, Ken, and Dennis :^)

As it happens, I did work a fair bit on the background to eliminate as much noise as possible and remove a couple of elements (a leafy twig on the right and a patch of bright light in the upper right corner) I found too distracting for the image I wanted to create and present.

My aim is to eventually sell the best of my work as prints here in Thailand, catering to both residents and tourists alike. With this in mind, while obviously I'd love to arrive at the stage where nearly every shot I took worked out perfectly how I wanted it, in full frame, precise composition, and with the absence of any and all distractions, I reckon I'm still a fair way off achieving that level of skill.

This being the case, in line with preparing a collection of photos that I think will appeal to the market I'm aiming at (before I run out of time and our savings completely run dry and I have to think of another way of making income anew!), if I think it will lead to a more pleasing image that a potential customer will appreciate enough as presented to buy, I'm more than happy to work an image as much as I can in post processing, though drawing a line well before the point of adding anything into the image that wasn't there in the first place.

While I haven't figured out just yet what or how I'm going to say to make it clear enough to my potential customers that my work is more of an artistic impression rather than a truly accurate representation of what I saw though my viewfinder, my intention is certainly not to lie to anyone about the images I create.

Having said all this, I hope I'm not leaving you with the impression that every image I show you here has been heavily worked in PP or that I'll ever lie about anything I've done to create them. All the same, unless this is for some reason strictly against board policy (which if it is, it's something I've missed reading about in the guidelines, so please advise me accordingly if I'm wrong) I would rather present my images without mentioning any major processing when I first post them up, as the reactions and feedback I'm really looking for is on the finished picture as I created it to it's (hopefully) most pleasing effect with a view to selling a prints to a very specific market that is less likely to be interested in an accurate portrayal of natural history than an image that gives them simple pleasure, be it for themselves or as a gift.

The suggestion made by Brian and Rick, that the composition might look better if I'd set the subject a little higher up in the frame, is exactly the sort of opinion and input I'm hoping for, and thank you both for it. Oh, and I happen to agree with that opinion too ;^)

I didn't want to mention the cloning work I'd done to remove the leafy twig and patch of bright light at the beginning, because I didn't want to draw attention to those areas, but I did want to see whether anyone would notice anything unnatural in the areas I'd worked, which apparently and thankfully no one has, so I'm assuming the work I did was OK ;^)

Unfortunately I also see some noise in the bird (particularly the blacks), which is a result of me not having tried to work any of that out from the original (I don't yet have a programme like Noise Ninja or NoiseWare to do more delicate work, and I really don't want to lose anymore detail in the feathers by trying it in PS) and, no doubt, partly due to me having sharpened the subject.

Wow! This is something of a long response even for me ;^. If anyone happens to read through it all and has any further thoughts or opinions or even any advice on what I've written above, I very much hope you'll share them with me.

Thanks to any of you with the patience to read all this and particularly any of you who choose to respond once again :^)

Best wishes,

Ashley

Neat pose , nice and sharp as well.

Thank you Cheryl, much appreciated :^)

A striking shot, love the pose and colors Ashley. I'm a bit envious of this one as I've seen this species many times but haven't gotten a really nice image of one yet.

Thanks Nate :^)

If you happen to visit Taman Negara yourself, the place I stayed at was called Rainforest Resort, and their terraced restaurant overlooks these trees at just lower than treetop level, so as long as you have the patience to wait for the birds to fly round to a favourable vantage point, chances are you'll see most if not all the 6 or 7 species I saw there too including these wonderful Asian Fairy Bluebirds ;^)

If you want or need any more details about the location just let me know and I'll be more than happy to help wherever I can :^)