[Leica] American Robin

[hartzell at kestrel.alerce.com (George Hartzell)]

Douglas Herr writes:
 > The neighbor's persimmon trees have drawn many flocks of fruit-eaters to 
 > the
 > area.  The American Robin is probably the most numerous of these birds:
 > 
 > http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/thrushes/amro04.html
 > 
 > What do you think of the framing?  I wanted to include the bird's legs and
 > feet but the swaying branch made precise composition difficult with the
 > 800mm (effective) focal length.
 > 
 > Technical stuff: Leica R4, 560mm f/6.8 Telyt, 1.4x APO-Extender-R, ISO 400
 > film.
 > 
 > Doug Herr
 > Birdman of Sacramento
 > http://www.wildlightphoto.com

Well, I'll be a dissenting vote here.  I suppose that if this is
supposed to be a technical illustration of the species you'd need the
tail, but I really like it as it is.

I don't miss the tail.  When I look at it I'm immediately drawn to the
head and the eye, and the open space on the right gives him/her space
to look into.  The slight darkening along the right edge (in the out
of focus background) helps hold my eye in the frame and puts a
boundary on the open space.

g.