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Paul Davey
01-14-2008, 02:22 AM
White-fronted Tern (Sterna striata) - an immature bird pictured on a murky day at Toko Mouth (Otago, New Zealand), a small settlement on the banks of the river that many of my other images here have came from. Naturally taken from a kayak, I was able to approach the young bird closely. At the peak of the tide though it was difficult for the boat to remain still as I was very near the true river mouth. I used flash, but as ever, the useless little bulb on my camera hardly does anything. A tiny speck of light can be seen in the eye, but that is hardly noticeable here.

Fujifilm Finepix S5600
Manual Mode
1/850 sec, ISO 100-200, f/3.4, 10x optical zoom at 380mm

Please take the time to comment. As ever, they are much appreciated, especially in-the-field techniques.

Paul

Alfred Forns
01-14-2008, 10:52 AM
High Paul You are right about the flash not doing much Would probably not use to save batteries Not sure what is the sync speed for that camera Usually around 200 or so One the shutter speeds goes beyond that speed the flash needs to seen several burst and the range is severely limited

I like the low angle you get from the kayak When composing I would wait for the bg bird not to merge with main subject I think this image could go brighter I like the pose and head position very much Framing wise it is just personal taste I rather do away with some of the negative space top and bottom to have the bird more prominent !!!

Paul Davey
01-14-2008, 04:35 PM
Okay Alfred, thanks for your opinion. I have cropped from the bottom, and using GIMP adjusted brightness, contrast and saturation. Hope that isn't too overboard in terms of manipulation. Here is the finished product.

Paul

Tony Whitehead
01-14-2008, 07:12 PM
edited version defrinitely an improvement Paul. I like the composition but find the bird in the background disturbing. It should be relatively easy to clone it out. Would ber a little nicer if the bird was this side of the beach debris but obviously not in your control. For me the main problem is the lack of detail in the eye. A more powerful flash and Better Beamer would do it but not sure how the achieve that with your camera

Paul Davey
01-14-2008, 08:17 PM
Hi Tony

My relatively "compact" camera does not support external flash set ups. My eyes are set on the Canon 400D sometime in the future so hopefully the flash will give a greater range for the time being. I don't clone. Thanks for the comments.