My wife and I live in Bethesda, Maryland, and we have often passed that statue on East-West Hwy. It is a great subject and I particularly like that you shot this from an angle that emphasized the length of the digits. You chose an angle and a time of day with good lighting.
I looked up shots of it on the Internet, and they all rendered the hand as stocky, which is very incompatible with a hand open to the sky and birds.
On the other hand (I could not resist), it would have been great if you could have included all five digits and not have that clutter of trees behind the birds. Demanding everything, could you also get a fuller view of all four birds? How about shooting from a lower angle?   Posted: 10/05/2025 05:16:39

Here is another image that I took of the hand.   Posted: 10/09/2025 03:45:02

Pauline, birds in a hand. Great idea and skillfully captured! The bird right on the thumb I thought could be distracting. Hard to get birds to obey! Here is the image after eliminating that bird.   Posted: 10/20/2025 13:30:00

Pauline, I'm intrigued by the shot and great angle you took it at. Sad the tree is a distraction you can't avoid, but the shot is nice with the elongated fingers. I like that Alec removed the extra bird, making the shot just a bit less busy in that area. Great choice for black and white to bring out the textures of the hand and keep the colors from being a distraction.   Posted: 10/21/2025 21:11:27