Ibis

I very much like the bird-in-natural-habitat feel of this shot Barbara, and although judging by the apparent distance between you and the Ibis and the shorter distance between the Ibis and the background this would have been hard to achieve even with the most expensive of lenses, I think a shot like this works much better when the background is more blurred.

I like your choice of composition leaving more space open on the LH side of the frame, and if this were mine I would probably crop in a bit more from the RH side to give this further emphasis and make more of a rectangular shaped crop; I'm one of those that seldom find squarish crops work well, though this is more a personal preference than anything else ;^)

IMO this is your best and most interesting image to date. I love the lush feel of the setting - the saturated colors and heavy growth give this a primitive feel. I am glad that the background greenery is sharp and within the DOF - it would be impossible to render it as a featureless expanse and would only look distracting if partially OOF. When the subject is close to the plants behind I find it much better to have everything in focus rather than major parts of the composition slightly out of focus.

The weakest part of the image is the foreground. The vegetation here is not as lush nor is it in focus. If you are going to include material like this in the frame I think it would be better to have it darker and/or sharper so it isn't as much of a distraction from the main subject. Stopping down the lens for more DOF, and putting the camera on a tripod to permit the slower shutter speed that would need, would be appropriate in such a situation.

Barbara,

I like this one very much. The suggestions about the FG are good ones. Perhaps you could have moved to your right some to avoid those 2 spikes sticking up. It is easy to overlook these things in the excitment of getting a good image. Happens to me all the time. Larger image is very nice. Thanks for sharing.

This image has a lot of appeal for me Barbara. I love the setting and the sharpness of the background works very well for me. I like where you've placed the ibis in the frame and the whites look good. I enjoy the perch too. Nicely done.

Love the sense of place in this image. A bit off the right would improve the comp for me.

Nice colors and detail and I love birds sittin' on a big ol' stump like this! Your best so far! Congrats. Sharon

Barbara, I completely agree with Richard.

Having said that it might be worth looking at cropping off the foreground OOF part. That would still leave the blades of grass going up into the frame. They would have to be carefully removed and I don't know what the tools available in Elements 9 are.

Peter

I love the large dof in this, Barbara. The habitat is wonderful and the bird provides the needed focal point for the scene. The oof foreground really doesn't bother me, though I think you could crop some off both bottom and top-lots of different ways to treat this one.

Barbara, I agree with Rich's comments. I really like this image. really nice setting and overall feel. I'd consider a little off the right and bottom for the comp, but also like it as presented.

I like it the way it is, it actually gives you something to look at instead of seeing just another bird big in the frame

cheers, Dennis