Roseate spoonbill at Ding Darling

[Dennis Zaebst]

Taken at Ding Darling in January. I had to do a bit of cleanup in the water, as the water was shallow. The spoonies were more cooperative than usual that day. Unfortunately that day too, I photographed quite a few spoonies and white ibis with fishing line wrapped around their beaks or legs. It was a bit disturbing to say the least. I stopped at the park office and mentioned it to the park officials. Also wrote a letter to the park management. I don't know if it had any effect. I know they are trying their best, but I can't help being disappointed. Has anyone else noticed this problem at the reserve?

Canon 7D ISO 250;
500 mm f/4L IS + EF 1.4x TC II;
1/1000 sec. @ f/9.0

PP in LR 4.3; AV Mode, exposure bias 0 EV, evaluative metering. Cropped for composition.

C/C greatly appreciated. Thanks for viewing.

[Loi Nguyen]

Dennis, very nice image, good exposure and love the silky blue water. I find the reflection a bit distracting and if this was mine, i would try to crop to the bend in the legs.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Hi Loi, do you mean to crop to the bend in the legs of the reflection?

[Satish Ranadive]

Dennis:
Magnificent image of spoony with lovely colors. Love the HA,beautiful colors,raised foot,lights,water droplets below the bill and nice blue water.
I am posting the image with crop at the bottom as Loi suggested.Sorry for your signature which has lost in cropping.

125534

Regards,
Satish.

[PhilCook]

WOW...magic colors in this Dennis and in my thoughts the perfect head turn and eye contact, exposure looks well handled also, although evidence of some halo appearing...well done for sure. Agree with Satish regarding the crop off the partial reflection, is there a shot with a full reflection by chance ?

Really like this one Dennis, but noticed something has gone a little wrong with perhaps a clone tool .......on the back of the bird..dead centre there is a pale streak where it looks like you may have tried to address the halo edge there

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great colours and detail, I especially like the patterns on the leg. I love the water drops at left, and the eye looks awesome. I found the comp tight to begin with so the repost does not really improve things for me...I'd actually have loved more all around, but realize you may not have it. Good eye by Phil, a bit of processing clean-up to do.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments. I have played around with this one (more than most :e3), and decided to post the original (vertical) and the best I could do with the reflected leg cropped. First here is the original, pretty much unadulterated. If one doesn't mind all the muddy eruptions on the surface in front of the bird, it's not bad.

Phil: thanks for noticing that "brush mark". I couldn't figure out when I had introduced that, but then stepped through every single one of the steps in LR's history, until I found it. I had inadvertently brushed that area (unintentionally) with LR's adjustment brush, and once I found it, I removed it. it wasn't an attempt to remove halos. If you still see halos, let me know.

Daniel, agree with the tightness, and in the second post below, I expanded canvas a bit on the right and bottom, and tried to get the bird slightly left of center. I'm not sure this is a major improvement, but it's the best I could do with the original. If anyone can suggest a different approach, I would appreciate it. Thanks again.

[Dennis Zaebst]

And here's the adjusted file.

[PhilCook]

Now it's perfect Dennis....love it !

[Bill Dix]

Perfect exposure, great pose, nice light. Lovely colors. I did find the bent reflected leg a little distracting, so I guess I don't mind it being cropped; but I would have liked some more room on top and to the right. It seems that would have involved adding some canvas to the right, so I'd be very happy with the final repost.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Phil. I'm learning a lot about being sharp-eyed and post-processing from you.

And thank you Bill. I did add some canvas to the right on the last repost (Pane #8)...are you saying more on the right would be desirable?

[Bill Dix]

Funny, I'm often a proponent of tight crops, but Pane 8 still looked a little tight to me. Personal (and inconsistent) preference, I guess. Still, a fine shot as posted.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Bill...will work on it some more. Part of the reason I cropped so tightly was to remove some of the less than ideal BG and FG. But I do have a lot of space around the bird, so will see what I can do. There must be a perfect frame in there somewhere. :S3:

[Dennis Zaebst]

One more try. Re-cropped original, and then extended canvas on left, right, and bottom.

Thanks everyone for your help on this one.

[Bill Dix]

Works very nicely for me. Good job on the canvas extension. Takes a good shot and brings it up a notch IMO.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Bill - much appreciate your coming back and commenting so long after the original post.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent image quality, great details and sharpness.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thank you Frank..I appreciate your kind words.