"White-Throated Kingfisher on the Wires" is going to Milan!

White-Throated Kingfisher on the Wires

Great news! This photo is going to be printed and showcased in photo fair in Milan!! Lately my photos have been traveling the world much more than me :)

Quoting from the email:
"
Congratulations!

Your Photo from the Minimalism challenge was selected to be printed and showcased at the highly prestigious International MIA Photo Fair, taking place at Piazza Lina Bo Bardi in Milan.

The exhibition will open on Thursday, March 21st with more details to appear on our Facebook Events page.
"

I must say that this photo surprised me a little bit in the success that it got - I thought I had better ones in that challenge, but apparently the voters liked this one the best.

What do I like about this photo? The color contrast - the Kingfisher is very colorful and dark, with the rest of the photo very light and less colorful, so the contrast is good. The wires add interest to the photo, as they gradually disappear out of focus - I used an open aperture (f/6.3, the most open my lens supports at the focal length of 400mm that I used) to create a shallow depth of field. The composition is a bit surprising in that the subject is in the center, but it works for this photo as the wires draw the eye towards the subject.

What would I want to improve? A shallower depth of field would have made the wires blur out more, and I think that would have been preferable (unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to achieve that). Better lighting might have helped as well in viewing more details on the Kingfisher. Getting closer by would also have helped, but this is a "Minimalism" challenge so I suppose having the Kingfisher too large in the frame would have made it unfit for the challenge :)