Big Red Landing 2

[Bill Dix]

Back in 2017 I posted an image of Big Red landing at Ft. DeSoto. The sun was literally minutes away from touching the horizon of the Gulf behind me, thus the very red tones. This was one frame earlier than the prior post. Big Red had been hanging out in the vegetation on the far side of the North Beach Lagoon, and I sat and waited for what seemed an eternity, knowing that sooner or later he would fly over to his favorite fishing spot at my side of the lagoon. As the sun was dipping I feared he might wait too long, but he didn't disappoint. Having him in my sights and having a pretty good guess as to his flight path, I was able to track his entire flight to the point of touchdown.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2000, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual.

[dankearl]

Worth the wait, great color...

[Brian Sump]

Bill, the sun's impact on the subject here is astounding. Super pose with minimal shadows is excellent!

For me, it appears to have some motion blur and just lacks critical sharpness I'm afraid. Might just be my eyes.

Gorgeous composition, just so close. TFS.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree with Brian that it seems a touch soft as posted, but boy look at that late light! Great job in the field placing yourself at the right spot and waiting.

[Mike Poole]

At the moment I'm waiting for my new desktop to arrive so I can hook up a proper monitor so viewing on a 13" MacBook it looks sharp enough here. Light is awesome, I love photographing Big Red at DeSoto - to the detriment of getting other species - and the pose and action are superb.

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. I had thought it was sharp, but when I initially processed this I didn't have the benefit of Topaz Sharpen AI. Using the "Stabilize" mode, and minor adjustments to the Auto setting, this RP definitely looks sharper to me.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, light, composition and repost is an improvement. I never used Topaz Sharpen AI but perhaps it would be something to consider using. Well done Bill.

[arash_hazeghi]

love the light and the pose, I've got to agree head isn't sharp, sharpening didn't help but made it coarse and crunchy so it must be the RAW...bummer as everything else is great

I use topaz AI NR it does a great job for NR but the AI sharpen not so much.... nothing in the world can make an image that was soft sharp unfortunately.

TFS

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Bill , a super cool frame with a stunning wing spreading .
Love the warm light ,framing spot on .
A shame that it is not 100 % sharp , but at least ok for web size .

TFS Andreas