Breezy Western Grebe

[kevin Hice]

I shot this grebe a few weeks back in a Nd slough. One of those days with too much wind to be in a floating blind, but sometimes you get lucky and come up with a good one. This is the only frame as I was being blown all over. I think it was blowing about twenty MPH. I came back a few days later and I got there about 4.30 am and knew something was wrong. Just didn't hear all the noise from the grebe colony. We had fifty mile winds and that destroyed hundreds of the nest in the colony. Some nest were just starting to hatch but I don't think many had hatched.
What struck me as weird looks like no chop in this part of the bay but look at those feathers. Optical illusion?
Processed with Dpp 4,Photoshop and Topaz noise. Comments and critiques appreciated. Thanks to all for previous comments.
Canon R3
Rf 600 f/4 L
840mm
M 6.3
1/2000
ISO 6400

[David Pugsley]

Wow, beautiful bird. Love the POV, HA and flared feathers. To my eye I'd like a bit less foreground and more headroom.

[Kurt Bowman]

This is really nice Kevin! Love the low angle, exposure looks spot on and love the wind blown feathers! Nicely done

[William Dickson]

I'm liking this Kevin....Great POV which shows the bird at its best.....The raised feathers sure add to the image.....Maybe sharpen the head and neck slightly...Shame about the colony.... I hope they recover....

Will

[Brian Sump]

Kevin, I just love Grebes. I have a huge file of different species and I must say, you captured this one well!

The breeze did a great job for you here, love the blown flight feathers. Great detail too! And the peaches/pinks... gorgeous.

Might consider trying to reduce magentas a bit (even solely on the subject), see what you think. I bet it mostly comes from the peak lighting, but worth a look.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A beautiful elegant image, the ruffled feathers provide added interest, the low point of view really show the bird to good effect.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Beautiful. Love those ruffled feathers too, nicely framed, great point of view :w3

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

hi kevin ... a real corker your image . love those feathers

tfs Andreas