A few days ago, I spent the afternoon exploring San Bernard NWR and while there weren’t as many photo opportunities as I wanted there were plenty of birds around. After going through my photos from the outing the one I ended up liking the most was one of the first from the trip. There is almost nothing about the situation that I would ask for when taking bird photos but somehow it seems to work for me.
The conditions were pretty dark under the canopy and there were lots of super-bright hotspots all over the place making exposure challenging. The bird was small in the frame making focus difficult. There were lots of extraneous twigs and leaves in the background and foreground to distract the viewer. I almost didn’t take the photo at all but I had already spent so much time watching this Hermit Thrush that it just seemed wrong not to take at least one picture.
It wasn’t until I got home and started working on it that I saw something that I found pleasing. I think for me the thing that makes this image is the leaves. There is something about them that I find appealing. Any thoughts?


www.texastargetbirds.com

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Catharus guttatus