Young Pied Billed Grebe with larger night crawler

[kevin Hice]

Shot in Nd slough.My wish is to have the head turned away a bit,so the worm wouldn't have intersected the grebes body. Processed with Dpp 4 Photoshop,neat image.Comments and critiques appreciated.

Canon 5D Mark 1V
500 f/4 L IS
700 mm
Av 5.6
1/2000
ISO 2000

[Ivan Sjogren]

What a catch Kevin!Beautiful light and colors and a well exposed scene. The worm is such a nice addition and a unique one at that! I don't mind to much that the worm intersects with the body as the head angle is perfect in all other regards. You might have gotten a better sun angle and less shadows in the face with the head turned slight away though which would have been nice. I think it looks a little to contrasty as is now. The colors are a little bit exaggerated even if it is early sunrise/or sunset. I would also try a more conventional crop with a tad more to the right and by removing some on the right. I would also clone the little bubble at the end of the blue waves. But these are nits on a very nice frame indded!

[Bill Dix]

A beauty of a show, with great POV and spectacular FG/BG. Worm a big plus. I don't think I would have noticed the overlap if you hadn't mentioned it. I suppose in a perfect world, slightly less of a head turn, by a few millimeters, would have been good. I agree it feels a little contrasty and saturated. I wasn't there, so no way to know if it really looked like this or if you applied a bit of enhancement.

[John Mack]

Love the color in that water. The prey is very neat. I see these birds alot in the spring. Never have seen on with a night crawler.

[Dorian Anderson]

Beautiful fall frame! Lighting and color are sublime, and the worm is really nice touch. I think head angle is perfect; it's super engaging with him looking right at us. Would love to see him moved slight right, ideally to get entire bit of blue ring to bird's left.