Your previous photos were nice but these, these are leaps and bounds better! Here is what you did right:
  1. Correct white balance.
  2. I don't know exactly how you achieved it, but the lighting is freaking gorgeous. The position and softness are absolutely perfect.
  3. You vastly improved the setup and composition.
  4. The technical exposure is much better--I bet these images are sharper and less noisy.



My only critique, and it's a very, very small one, is that if it were possible to frame slightly tighter on a few of the pictures, that would be even better. The reason is because it is not really "typical" to see a single isolated branch with a bird sitting atop it, and the rest of the image is so strongly blurred. Usually, we see other branches, for example, even though they are not in sharp focus, they are still there. Now, bear in mind, this is something I had to really sit down and think about when looking at this series because I strongly preferred #2, but could not figure out why. At first I chalked it up to the fact that the bird is larger/more prominent, but that wasn't really the reason. Only after several minutes did I realize that it was the isolated branch. In #2, it's not an issue because your framing is just right, where you get a lovely background effect yet the bird and branch take up enough space so as not to make it look unnatural.


But really, I want to emphasize that ALL of these pictures are absolutely awesome, really very impressive especially considering they are shot @ 300mm. I think you must have taken Nate's tips to heart and dedicated yourself to these, you should be very proud of your work!


Oh and I do have a question: Typically, how large are these birds, and how much did you crop--if any--the originals? That is, did you find the focal length insufficient?