ok. appreciate the feedback

I could take out the half beak-ed duck but then I get to 4 ducks and i know how judges like odd #'s of things. ( I am submitting to my local camera club) So it get down to whats the lesser of the two evils.

I waited an hour and a half for this immature eagle to leave his perch and go after these ducks. He was unsuccessful. Question to all; how much do you think the fact that the first ducks beak is cut off detracts from the picture?

Eagle chases duck

Thanks. Same bird , different angles and expression. Taken with my newly acquired Nikon 80-400mm.

It happens about every 7 years. An overabundance of food up north means an overabundance of snowy owls. They come south but ultimately head back north as the population equalizes.
I took this picture today in Stratford CT (Long Beach)

-The cat is great. Its different in that the claws are the center of attention not the usual cat eyes.
-The problem with the berrys is that your eye goes to the pine tree in the back which is dead center so either go to a lowr aperture if you can to really throw it out of focus or move to one side and recompose
-The snow scene has great potential. The contrast of the Red stop sign against the snow is great but your eye just goes right to the bright street light. You should rethink your position and go left or right and take the light out of dead center. Perhaps use it as an anchor or frame on the left.
Overall you are headed in the right direction though!

#1 but to be brutally honest, and I think that's what you want from groups like this, the out of focus beak takes away from the photo. You are immediately drawn to the beautiful eyes at first but then you just keep going back to the out of focus beak. I think that will take away from what otherwise is a great photo. What is the category for the contest?

This guy was big enough to chase away a squirrel at the suet feeder. Zero degrees and snow make animals aggressive when ti comes to food

woodpecker

ok, I give up....how did you do this?

That is exactly what post processing should be used for; to get it like you saw it. I hate it when people over saturate or abuse HDR to get comic book looking photos. Have you gotten any eagles in flight?

I love the white one...a classic 57? I never cared for the car once they put it on steroids and made it larger as the black one is ...a 60 perhaps?

I like #3 . What did you do post processing or in camera between #2 & #3 to get the feathers to look that great bronze color?

here is how i create wow. when i look at a photo op i say to myself what will make mine stand out from any other like it. example. the Rockefeller center tree in ny. im sure many thousands of photos taken. every time i've taken that photo i get peoples heads in the shot. so this year i mounted my camera on a monopod and hoisted it way above the crowd and took the shot with an electronic remote. no heads and an almost aerial view. different perspectives create wow. everything is not the best at eye level

i'm new to this site so i'm not sure how open people are to constructive criticism but here goes. the first picture is to overcooked. when you see it, it immediately says "HDR" first and image itself second. There is nothing natural about it. its a great composition but in my opinion the over saturation hurts and does not help. I actually think it would be a great Black & White shot.

I'm a sucker for Eagles. The "nice try" pic gets my vote as best of the bunch. Did he miss the fish or where you a nano second to late to get that shot? either way its a great photo!