Vine Vulture

[teddeady]

I was on my way to pick my wife up from work a few days ago when I noticed two large birds swoop down into a vineyard near the road. One was perched on a vine post and the other was on the ground. This was a quick shot without much forethought, but I was impressed with the size and look of them. I took this with my Fuji S5000. How could I have gotten a better photo? Any comments? Thanks.

[Charles Hess]

I don't know the power of your zoom, but a closer look at this giant would have been impressive. You say that this was a quick shot, so not much thought into the composition, I guess. Centering the bird in the frame shows us a bit too much of the busy surroundings, which compete with your subject. Sharpness could be better, but if the lens was zoomed to its max, you probably didn't have a decent shutter speed to work with. Good effort of a not-so-usual subject. :-)

[Lava Lamp]

Some cropping could do a lot for this photo - you have a wild and crazy background an interesting bird - you might even try to throw it off kilter a bit. Conventional photographic wisdom is to avoid putting you subject dead center.

[teddeady]

Thanks Charles and Lava Lamp.
I had to reduce this photo quite a bit to be able to post it, so I can go back to my original saved image and see if I can make it better. I was really in too much of a hurry , as my wife was waiting, but I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to get an out of the ordinary photo.