Touchdown

[Randall Farhy]

New Market lake, 2011. Camera 7D 400mm F5.6 ISO 400 SS 1/2500 F5.6 approximately 60% of the frame intact. High contrast overhead sun. Denoise 5 and Lightroom 5 adjustments, quite a few local adj. brushes applied to bring out color values shading and sharpness on the bird. Horizon adjusted CW, might have gone a little too far. C&C always welcome.

[Ian Cassell]

Great landing shot! Excellent capture with the feet just over the water. You might consider lightening the face just in front of the eyes. Also, I believe it needs a little CW rotation.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Agree with Ian on the face.... and, wonderful "landing" capture! I don't think you overdid the CW rotation, nor does it need more... I am judging by the bottom "horizon" (is there such a thing?) With any more rotation, it would then seem to need CCW. Love how the wings come just close enough to the head without obscuring it, as well as "touch-down" of the feet and tail!

[Diane Miller]

Talk about the decisive moment!! And a great three-point landing just about to happen. Never knew they used their tails... Great detail and tonalities.

Rotation is tricky on one like this -- it comes down to what looks best to balance the conflicting details in the water.

[Randall Farhy]

Thanks all, got lucky on the timing with this one that's for certain. Because he was angled slightly away from camera, the light didn't quite catch all of the iridescent green on his face. To pull anything more out of the darker area I will have to add detail from another shot or a different spot on his head as that area goes muddy if lightened further. Diane, I suppose they drag tails to slow enough so that they don't flip face forward when their feet go into the water -pure guess. I have a short sequence of a Canada Goose landing on ice that shows the process fairly well if interested.

[Diane Miller]

Sure, would love to see the goose shots!

[Iain Barker]

Hi Randall

I really like this image especially the pose of the bird. Nothing more to critique than what has been said already.

TFS
Iain