All the ingredients for a wonderful photograph was present. That included a stunning bird, colorful flowers, nice green leaves, and reasonably okay light. What more can one ask for? Yet, even though all the ingredients were present, sometimes they just do not all work together. Photography is not always easy. Here is a sequence of images of that scene:

This image just does not work for me. The bird does not stand out well. Much of the background is just blah. Let's try again.

Now the blah background is gone, but this one is too distracting, too busy. I need more simplicity. Some of the distraction needs to be eliminated. But how?

To me, this one is the best of the bunch, but oh, now what? The leave in the background to the left of the bird it too bright. It pulls the viewer's eyes away from the bird and to the background. Yes, I know, many photographers would just Photoshop it out. But this is nature photography, so I don't do that as a rule. This is the challenge of photography, there is always something wrong. Then it is too dark, then too bright, then a distraction, then this, then that. There is always something the matter. This is why good nature photography is so difficult.

          How do we overcome these difficulties? There are two schools of thought on this. Some make use of set ups, where the photographer controls the perch, the background, and the lighting. Thus they get awesome images. Others just keep trying, over and over again, until all the ingredients work together well. These are the images I tip my hat off to.