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I'd really appreciate some feedback on this one - particularly:

Composition - I like it, but it doesn't really fit to any of the rules. What do others think?

Sharpness - no PP on this shot (except to reduce size for web and convert from NEF to JPG). My eyes aren't what they used to be, but I think it may not be pin sharp. Any suggestions to improve?

Mate; I like this for some reason?????

I think it’s the contrast of the tree against the blue sky that makes it appealing!!!!
I think if you crop to fill the frame with the tree it mite add a little more
impact to the image.

something like this!!




Just a thought!!

Cheers
Ray

Whip out that CLONE TOOL and remove the top branch that goes nowhere.

Sorry, but can't see anything special, to me you'd need a longer zoom and close up more on the bird.
Cheers,
Gerard

Flipfrog, I love what you've done with this. Can you tell me what you did? I agree with you and Killa that it looks much better without the top branch.

G'day,
To me this seems a refreshing change, seems more artistic or something rather than a straight animal/bird shot... Like it very much, the scraggly tree branch gives me a feeling of the hard-life animals would have... Then again I'm a sucker for a pic of an old dead tree reaching up into a deep blue sky... I really like the bird at the end of a scraggly old branch.

Definately clone out the tree branch coming in though, and might be worth having a play with contrast to bring out some more detail of the bird...

Cheers,
Mudder

Empty spaces in a photograph are like periods of silence in music. Can be very effective and suggest tranquility. This is an appealing image and would be suited for a magazine cover because there's plenty of room for tastfully applied text. Nice shot. I'd like to see more images with lots of empty spaces because they are difficult to construct successfully. I don't think in this case the bird needs to reveal lots of detail.

ru32day:

i pretty much just desaturated the sky, did some cropping, took out the stray branch with clone stamp, and then used the dodge tool to attempt to brighten up the bird a bit...
then a border for fun!

i dont think its better, just different....