I'm Outa Here

[NKP68]

A group of NYC pigeons. There's always one that doesn't like pretzels.
C&C please.

[gahspidy]

Pigeons, probably one of the most photographed birds ever. Although shot in a certain context, such as with the view of the big city in the background or in a park near a bench of people sitting or some scene that includes them in the life of the city which they are in a sense, can work.

Shooting down at them from your typical standing perspective usually would not make much of a shot of interest, and at first glance thats what I thought we had here. However, upon looking at this some more, I find that whether intentional or not, there are aspects to this shot that work really well.

There is a good balance to the overall composition. The layout of the birds in the frame works. Then there are the gaps in the sidewalk that lead the eye from bottom left frame into the upper right where the group of pigeons are and then up to the top which then brings my eye around to the pigeon in the upper left frame and the circle begins again. The pigeons are positioned to move from lower left frame to upper right.
Then there is the one bird going the other way, which I think was the point of the shot in the first place, and this brings us a bit of a story here to go along with the photo.

Black and white is good for this and the shadows falling from left to right add to the flow of the composition also.

I never thought I'd be writing so much about a photo of pigeons, but I wanted to explain what I feel makes this stand apart from the typical snapshot that it appears to be at first glance. My only nitpik would have been to open up the frame a bit more on the left.

Good work

[NKP68]

Thanks for taking the time to detail your critique Gary. To be honest I don't usually pick the ubiquitous NYC pigeon as a subject, these just caught my eye. I really liked the flow and interest they created. A young boy was feeding and chasing them. I was in a hurry and only took one shot. I agree that there should be more space to the left, but unfortunately, the edge of the frame is the edge of the frame. Thanks again,
Ed

[ccd333]

Gary pretty much covered everything. One other thing that I find distracting is the white feathers....they are a bit hot.

[LeeIs]

I agree. Gary covered it real well. seems everything is pointing to the same direction, except 1. tough subject!