Snow swan - juvi trumpeter banking through the flurries

[Randy Stout]

Taken this past weekend on a brisk winter mourn (-2 F). This is a bird of the year, so still some grey, and he has the special leucistic colored feet.

I pondered this one for a while because of the far shore line intersecting with the bird. I tried a version with some slight softening of the dark shore line, but kept coming back to the original. Would appreciate your thoughts.

D4 500 AFS f/4 @ f/6.3 1/4000s ISO 1000 hand held

Post: localized contrast adjustments on the bird, sharpening. Slight rotation to level. The slight halo effect around the head is from snow behind him on the far shore, not sharpening.

Advice and comments always appreciated

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose and the snowing in the background is a great feature of the image. Exposure loog goodamd the bird has nice separation from the white foreground as well. Great work, Randy.

[Dave Leroy]

Lovely photo and I really like the bg colors. Intersection of bg and bird is not bothering me. Pretty impressive at 10000 ISO unless that is a typo. I wish our swans were this clean.

[Randy Stout]

Dave:

Glad you read the tech details, sorry I didn't proof it and catch the misprint on the ISO :e3. It was 1000. I occ shoot at 6400, and it will look OK for web size, I don't like the look while processing them, so don't go that high often

Thanks for your comments and catching my typo!

Cheers

Randy

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Fantastic image, looks so cold out there, especially as it's snowing. Great sharp landing pose and I like that the bird stands out nicely against the BG, good work.

[David Salem]

Another great wintery scene. You sure got the exposure work down pat on the swans and geese over the snow. Nice banking pose and the snow falling in the BG makes the scene. Well done

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the incoming pose, exposure, sharpness, falling snow and composition. I am okay with the shoreline intersecting the bird. Well done Randy!

[Gary Esman]

Nice glide in pose, environment, sharpness and exposure. Especially like the curious look he is giving you. Relative of our friend from the fall?

Gary.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks folks for the comments.

Gary - I think this fellow is from a different family than the one with the multi colored bill. I saw that guy a few weeks ago, still with wild bill.

Cheers

Randy

[Shawn Zierman]

Wonderful image. The flight pose is excellent. Sharply rendered details. The quality and amount of the finer snowflakes are great features to the image.
Only suggestion, and it is minor, would be to consider removing the old guano or weed that is stuck on the bird near the back by the tail....unless ethically
opposed of course..

[Robert Holguin]

Terrific shot Randy!!
I really like the flight angle and pose.
Exposed very well, excellent comp and IQ.
The snow falling really puts this over the top.
Very well done.