Blue tit

Spent some time in the garden today and got these, had to use high ISO to get any thing with the bigma
[IMG]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s95/muffin51/Bluetit.jpg[/IMG]
Sun might shine one day
[IMG]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s95/muffin51/Bluetitgoodone.jpg[/IMG]

The first shot has a very natural feel to it. Perhaps it is because the bird happens to appear life size on my screen, but I can almost imagine reaching in and feeling the feathers or even picking the bird up. I think this set is a great example of how the overall composition and subjective 'feel' of an image is more important than absolute technical image quality. (That's not to imply they are technically bad!) Both images are are very similar technically but, for me at least, the second one doesn't have same 'feel', more a very good attempt at capturing a difficult subject under less than ideal conditions.

I am probably over analysing this but it has just highlighted to me how much less (subconsciously) I consider the technical aspects of a 'great' image. In the first one I immediately just thought 'that's a real blue tit', whereas for the second I was immediately thinking of camera settings and how you would have been struggling with the low light, shutter speed and focus etc. just to get an image.

Thanks for posting them, its really got me thinking

Thanks Simon, that is one detailed account you gave and it's good to hear someones thoughts agreeable or not, it's accounts like this that help some of us achieve what we are looking for.