Bird Island at golden hour

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

My first landscape post in BPN so I do it with caution - it always takes a while to adjust to the general thinking processes of a specific genre / forum. This was taken at sunrise on Saturday morning (at 0 degrees C!:eek3: ) from a bird hide at Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa. I usually prefer having something of interest in the foreground but from a bird hide your options are pritty limited - none in this instance. I thus opted for the horison in the middle of the scene and trusted the reflections to add a bit of interest in the foreground. Taking longer exposures to smooth out the reflections were out of the question because the hide (a wooden structure) is not solid and transferred vibrations caused by moving co-photographers right back into the camera.

Removed a set of power lines on the horison and applied a few rounds of USM in PS. Then added just a touch of vibrance & saturation in LR to display these beautiful colors as I've seen them. Cropped to about 85% of original pic.

D600
Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 @ 35mm.
f/4 | 1/25s | ISO 250

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Tobie, welcome to the landscape forum and no need to post with caution, we love to see new faces and new imagery :S3: I really like this image a lot. The colours in the sky are lovely, the cool temps have help add a touch of mist on the water and the calmness of the water helps to create a nice reflection of the island. The only thing I would consider is to clone out the small white spots (buildings maybe?) on the distant mainland. Very nice work and look forward to seeing more of your landscapes soon!

[Don Railton]

Hi Tobie

Welcome from me too Tobie, and I love the pastel colours in this... The mist on the water provides a nice touch albeit masking the reflections somewhat.. Agree with Andrew on removing the dot..

Don

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for your comments Andrew & Don!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice mood and I know this spot well. As good a composition as one can get here, in all probability, except if you have nice clouds overhead.
It feels like it needs a slight CW rotation, Tobie??

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=141343&d=1400822722

Thanks for the comments, guys!

White spots (vehicles) removed. I've also sharpened it a little and raised highlights slightly to accentuate the colors a little more.

Morkel I've re-adjusted the horizontal orientation using the island as 'anchor', resulting in a marginal CW rotation.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Gorgeous subtle light. Lovely mood.