Goldeneye on Gold

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/5.6
1/800
ISO 1000

The water colour was caused by the setting sun striking the harbour wall. This only happens for approx 30 mins before the sun(if it is not cloudy) goes down behind some nearby houses. The tide has to be high, and, of course you wait and hope some bird swims by during the 30 mins. I've been lucky a few times.

Will

[stuart wanuck]

lovely color and bg

[Randy Stout]

Will:

Very nice colors, head angle, reflections in the water.

Some of the whites near the tail look a bit featureless, as if originally overexposed and then recovered. I don't know this bird well however.

One other thing to consider. The extra catchlight tends to reduce the apparent sharpness of the eye. Might try a version with it removed.

Some may object to the multiple eye reflections in the water. They are soft enough that they don't really bother me much.

Cheers

Randy

[John Mack]

Nice Goldeneye Here. Good head turn really like that water.

[David Salem]

Very nice William. Perfect HA, nice clean whites and great details in the brown head. Maybe a bit of NR on the BG, now that we are looking at it larger. Well done and it looks great on the 5K

[arash_hazeghi]

nice light and colors, sharp. BG is noisy and can use some NR, the brighter reflections can be cloned out as well

TFS

[Glenn Pure]

Sweet shot Will. I like the complementary colours of bird and background. Good detail and tonal range on most of the bird but a shame about the blown-looking white patch near the rear. Always a risk with high contrast birds in direct light. Another vote for a bit of NR on the background. Thanks for sharing.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, great HA here, and I like the plumage detail on the head. Well exposed on the body too. Comp wise, if this were mine, I would take a bit off the bottom inline with the white reflection, and then add the same amount above.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that guys. Much appreciated and learned from.

Will