Leaving the Nest

[Bill Dix]

Northern Fulmar flying past the face of the cliff where I was photographing Northern Gannets, on the Langanes Peninsula, Iceland in May. Those who like their birds against nice simple backgrounds may not care for it, but I was attracted to the lovely patterns on the rocky cliff.

D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600cc, ISO 500, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual. HH

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

The bird is excellent, sharp, well exposed, nice DOF. Like the positioning in the frame. I do like the concept of the interesting background, but I do find it competes with the bird for our attention. For me, the perfect balance is when the eye is immediately drawn to the subject, but then scans the rest of the image to take in the details there. Perhaps tweaking the saturation of the yellow in the background a bit would soften the impact, without eliminating the benefits. If you had a frame where the bird was on the portion of the background without the yellow, perhaps it would resist the drawing of the eye off the subject a bit better?

Randy

[John Mack]

The bird stands out nicely against those rocks. Really like the pattern of the lichens. I like this not something you see everyday.

[David Roach]

I love this entire composition. I keep moving from the beautiful top side feather patterns to the rock/grass/lichen patterns and back... You definitely got what you were going for in my book. Congrats and TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

The setting is wonderful - particularly the lichens - but I agree with Randy that it tends to overpower the subject, even with perfect exposure and details.
Had the bird been looking directly at you that would have helped strengthen it's presence in the frame.

[Paul Burdett]

I'm with John on this one. I really like the whole composition...the BG, in my view, does not compete with the bird, but enhances it. Looking down somewhat allows us to see the wing detail so well. This is a natural environment, and for me works so well here. There are plenty of images of birds against a plain BG, and so it's nice to see something a little different. Exposure looks spot on. TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thanks guys. For me, this was as much about the setting and composition of the lichen as it was about the bird. But Randy, you make a good point. I don't have a frame where the bird is well framed by, but independent of, the lichen -- except for this repost taken several frames before the OP. But of course the presence of the second bird makes this one an entirely different image, and draws the eye away from the primary bird even more than the lichen in the OP. (Clone out the second bird??:S3:)

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Prefer the original, Bill. Not only the lichen adds nicely, but you managed to get a nest in the cliff. Beautiful defused light, and excellent detail.


Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Always fun to see the different takes on an image. Just for fun, I downloaded it and desaturated the lichens by about 15 points in LR. To my eye, it moved the bird more forward, more prominent, but personal taste for sure.
I like the second image a lot, as it gives a sense of the colony. Too bad the flying birds shadow falls on the roosting one. I know, picky, picky, picky!

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Randy. I'll give the desat a try.