Backyard Wildlife

[Kevin B]

These were taken over the last few days.  Trying a Mamiya 645 300mm/5.6 on my Nikon D7000.  Not sure what that makes the effective focal length?  A tripod was used for the squirrel, handheld for the wren.  Doesn't look like handheld is going to work very well and manual focus makes it a little slow but I think I am going to like it.  Critique and opinions are welcome. 

[sdwilsonsct]

Have you seen Glenn Bartley's pictures earlier in this forum? He sets an intimidatingly high standard. 
The wren picture is in the right direction.
Keep at it!

[Larry Heath]

Nice shots both.

I think a light touch of sharpening would be all I think I would like to see in the first. The second seems to need as well as a tiny bit of sharpening, maybe use the healing brush in the background to remove or smooth out the sharper straight/parallel shadows right behind the subject.

Later Larry

[Kevin B]

Thank you Scott and Larry.  Really appreciate the suggestion about the background on the wren, Larry.  There was something I didn't like about that photo, just wasn't sure what to do about it.  I am liking it a lot better now.