A Bird

[jgbkab]

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 300 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

I tried my hand at a little nature photography today. Is the focus correctly on the eye? As far as I can tell it is but something looks off to me.

[Dodge]

I looked at this on your flickr at the largest version and the eye seems pretty good. I think that the problem often is with birds, in fact a lot of timid wildlife is that you often need to crop quite heavily in order to make an effective image of your subject because even at 300mm it's still often tricky to get close enough. This cropping inevitably limits any sharpening that will often make the eye really 'pop' if it doesn't already.

I suspect that the main reason something seems a little 'off' to you is that the twig to the birds' left may be drawing your eye away from the bird itself, rather than it being any focus issue.

[Peggyjom]

I think this is a pretty shot. The thing that is a bit distracting is that it looks like there was a branch close that blurrd out a bit in front of the birds tail. Sometimes with wildlife you get what you get, working for every one! If you get one or two on a day outing you doing great and you got that!!
I really like the curly twig off to the side and the pretty green bokah!

[jgbkab]

Thanks, Dodge and Peggyjom. I noticed the twig but I didn't think it would have that much of an impact. But I see that it does draw my attention away from the bird at times.