A Simple Enough Pleasure (unprocessed)

here's the original of today's blip

"A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it."

- Anne Spencer

This morning, while having breakfast, my wife noticed some little dinosaurs flitting about outside the window. Of course I grabbed my camera, stuck on the telephoto lens, and popped outside (what was that about breakfast alone with one's spouse?...) After a bit of looking about I spotted this Eastern Spinebill having his own breakfast in a jacaranda. I snapped off a few shots, which were somewhat surprisingly in focus. I liked this one the best, with the Spinebill hanging upside down and craning his head back.

I sharpened it a tad in Filterstorm Pro, then added a mild RGB curves adjustment (a bit of an S) applied using a circular gradient centred on the Spinebill. I tried all sorts of crops - as it would be nice to have the bird bigger - but I couldn't find one that worked; I always preferred it like this. Perhaps it's more in context; also there's more out-of-focus stuff in the whole image.

I had a hard time deciding on what to blip today. On my way to work is a derelict hall of some sort. There are many potentially cool photos it offers, but this morning the one I took was of a flower in front, with the hall out of focus in the background.