portrait of a hen

[jkn]

This is a shot a brooding hen taking care of a young rooster. I like this one quite a bit, especially with it being a non-macro shot (most of my interest so far has been more on the macro side of the fence...) Lots of minor flaws, but the major one to me is the dark shadow in the lower right. It's overall a bit dark, the rooster especially.

The hen didn't stay in that position long, she wasn't happy with an intruder opening the door... :-)

I'd love to know what you think is right and wrong about it.

http://www.johei.com/pixel/index.php?showimage=15

Camera is a Sony DSC-F717.

As a quick background - I'm relatively new to photography and this is certainly a "hobby". My wife wanted a new camera back in 2001 - and decided on the F717 - and then somehow I kind of took it over from her. I found that taking photos was a great creative outlet away from writing music (my "real" hobby... ha). I've been getting better ever since - obviously I have a long way to go.

[eon]

Nice photo, I would take the photo a little bit closer to the first hen and then focus on the hen in the back.
What is the black thing in the lower-right corner? Take care that you keep those things out of sight. It's disturbing the photo.

[lopp]

subjective views on images of brooding hens aside, i think the shot is pretty good.

if the empthesis of the light was directed more towards the hen's head instead of its back, more character could be achieved, from the hen's expressions and whatnot.

i like the way the bird at the back has its head and front outlined against the black background.

[jkn]

Thanks for the comments - yes, that black blob (not my finger... promise...) is very annoying. I don't remember what that was - though it appears in several of the other shots I took before bailing out of that little room (dust and all that drives my asthma nuts...)

I could crop it, though I like the balance of it the way it is - so cropping becomes difficult.