"Stonechat on Thorns" is going to Athens!

Stonechat on Thorns

Exciting news - this photo is going to appear in an exhibition in Athens, Greece. Quoting the email I got:

"
Congratulations!

Your Photo was selected to be Digitally showcased in the "Photographer of the Year!" exhibition at Blank Wall Gallery located in the heart of Athens, Greece.

You can find GuruShots' event for more details here.
"

This is a somewhat of a minimalist photo, but it has its charm. The Stonechat seems somewhat pensive, reflecting on the days' events.

What do I like about this photo? It's very clean - the background is almost completely blurred out, since I used an open aperture (f/6.3 - the most open my lens supports at a focal length of 400mm), and the background was far enough from the subject. This creates great isolation of the subject, which is very sharp and interesting. The background colors add interest to the photo - it was taken in the winter and the colors show that. The thorns add a lot to the photo, so even though the bird itself does not cover a large area, the photo is still interesting.

What would I want to improve? Better lighting on the bird would have been preferable - it's a bit dark. Also, a better angle, showing more the of the head would have been nice. If I could also move the bird more to the right of the frame that would have made for a more striking photo. Unfortunately I do not have more area to the left, so that would require making the bird larger in the photo, and some of the atmosphere would go away. Would need to compose the photo better when taking it, which I did not do.



But overall I like this photo a lot!