Trumpeter Swans - Skagit River Flats, Washington

[Terry Olmsted]

Taken on a frosty but clear morning, Dec. 6, 2007
Canon 400D 400mm f5.6L 1/4000s f5.6 ISO 400 hand held
I could have stopped down a couple of stops, but no time, as usual. This was the only in-flight opportunity I had.

[Steve Foss]

Terry, that's beautiful. All the usual tech type stuff looks just right. Both your main subjects are sharp, and there's enough DOF for the BG subjects. What makes the image much more than just a couple neat swans in flight is the swans moving in the other direction in the background. A very nice point-counterpoint of composition. Because the BG swans show fair detail, the only thing that jars my eye (and this VERY slightly) is how tight the BG swan in the upper right corner is to the top of the frame. A touch of added canvas there would negate that, if such a thing falls within your ethics and you agree with that opinion.

I wish I had taken this photograph.

[Bonnie Block]

Hi Terry,
Beautiful image, well exposed and sharp. I do agree, that top right hand bird is a bit close to the edge of the frame.

[Terry Olmsted]

Steve and Bonnie - thanks very much for your comments! Adding to the canvas certainly is well within my 'ethics'. I appreciate the sugggestion.
Terry

[Milo Burcham]

Run it by your ethics committee: there is a very nice composition in there somewhere if you had a little more space to work with. The wing position of the near swans could be better and I see some posterization or a dust glob(?) off the wing tip of the left-most of the background birds.

[Anita Rakestraw]

This is beautiful, Terry. I agree with what has already been said. Your background (sky) is kinda blotchy for some reason - I see at least 3 large dust or water spots on the left side of the image, and a couple other places where there are slightly light spots....if you can locate and eliminate those, you might want to run some noise reduction just on the sky. Sure are beautiful birds, though!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

While the wing positions are not ideal, I like the exposure control, separation between the two swans and also the 3 OOF birds. I might add some space on the left. Maybe some NR on the BG.

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks for all the comments. I agree on the composition, Axel. I didn't have much choice in the field, but I did play a bit with cloning and added space on the left and right so that the birds are not flying out of the frame. I normally do no do much editing in this way, but I felt the background swans and lighting made it worthwhile to play a bit.
Terry

[Anita Rakestraw]

Yes, that composition looks much better, Terry! Now, about that splotchy background....(-:

[Terry Olmsted]

I'll work on that, Anita - on the full size file - I just wanted post the revised compostion. I don't seen the blotchiness on my screen, proabably because of the small file.
Terry

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice repost. I love the image, colors and details.

Big Congrats...:D