Cardinal in the bush is......

[srobb]

Feel really lucky with this shot for the amount of moving around and seeing how close I could get and have the bird stay still. Posted this on the Nature forum in the bird id thread, but wanted to see what everyone thought. Nothing really done except resizing and maybe a 15% crop.

[gahspidy]

srobb, you have captured the bird which is half the battle when trying to photograph them. They are real difficult to get good shots of. The thing about these type shots of nature and wildlife is that there are so many great images in crisp sharp detail that the bar is raised very high when it comes to these wildlife shots. In this picture, there are too many branches and twigs in the way in the fg, and then once we peer through to the bird, it is not quite as sharp as it needs to be. I have tried these bird shots and know how difficult they can be and so I appreciate the effort you gave just to get this one here.

[srobb]

Thanks, Gary. I know the foreground branches are a problem. So far, it appears to be one liked by those I shot it to. I just wanted to make sure that it was worth giving to someone.

Would hate to blow my image as a perfectionist. ;)