Hairy Woodpecker, somewhat of a silhouette. Trash or interesting shot?

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Braxton L

Braxton L

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Thoughts appreciated . Not really sure how i feel about this, I think I like it but not too sure. No drastic editing at all, just a backlit bird in a forest mid morning. Thanks!
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Ah, woodpeckers! If they would just sit on a branch in good light in front of a nice background. Can't be that hard, they have enough branches to choose from, right?

Nice little fella! I like wildlife images that show some of the environment. Fully agree that the first one is intruiging, I just can't put my finger on it... The out of focus elements conzrast nicely with the clear background, that alone makes an image work for me. The trickey bit is to include the woodpecker. Maybe reducing most (everything?) to a siluette in front of the bright background except the woodpeckers head? Just a suggestion, and not easy to properly edit. For me, that would be one of those images that "haunt" me, I know that there is something potentially great that just needs being pulled out (as opposed to trying to salvage a bad shot).
 
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Someone once told me that when you're unsure about a photo you should try to identify the parts of it that you like and the parts you don't like. Then in post you could try to emphasize the parts you like and de-emphasize the rest.

My comments will be strictly from my point of view and may not be at all what you were thinking. But here goes. To me it seems like the photo is split into two parts, with the interesting bit being the left half. The bright area to the right doesn't add much (IMHO) so I would maybe try a crop, say 8X10 vertical, leaving just the left part. Then as the previous responder mentioned try darkening the foreground while leaving the bird as is. Lastly, if you're a Lightroom user, the new Lens Blur tool might be able to make your background bokeh just a little smoother. It has worked on several of my shots to help separate the subject from the background. Again, just my thoughts which you are completely free to ignore.
 
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