Sunset with Swans

[Nagesh Mula]

I took this picture while on a recent visit to Lodi,CA. I have been travelling to this place since past two years in the hope of getting a good shot of Sandhill cranes/Swans/Snow goose. But its strange that they always land in the private properties meant for hunting or far away to be visible only with Binoculars :).
The only good thing is sunset there which is excellent. Posting one of pics from my recent trip.
Your comments/critique are welcome.
Specs - EOS 30D,29-135mm, 120mm @ 1/1250 & AV 10, ISO 250, Handheld.

[denise ippolito]

I think this is beautiful!!- the colors are cool!-If it were mine I would crop some off the top-right under the white strip in sky-also get rid of birds in sky they don't help they take away from your beautiful image-also lots of dust bunnies in sky. Love the swans in water along w/ colors reflected in water-but that's just my opinion. I'm sure you'll get better input from the pros

[Robert Amoruso]

Big pluses in the image Nagesh are the placement of the swans and the sun's color. Your silhouette is sharp as I would recommend. i agree witht Denise on cloning the OOF birds in the sky and the dust spots.

I posted a recropped version that tightens the image up and places the sun and swans in a rule of thirds composition. I do like the clouds at the top but feel the tighter crop accentuates the other strong points of the image. I left the cropping grid on the image to demonstrate. I also preserved your copyright by copying it onto the recropped version. Thanks for posting.

[Julie Kenward]

I agree with Robert's crop on the two ends but I also think you should consider taking a bit off the bottom and leaving the clouds at the top. Either that or slightly fade the top of the frame's edge so it looks like more of a natural gradient (as it does in the original presentation.)

It certainly is a beautiful moment you captured and the exposure is perfect. Nicely done.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Nagesh,
I'm going with Julie on this one.......as I like the top clouds too much to crop them out........Roberts crop off the left and right is what I was going to recommend also. The colors are superb as is the placement of the birds........did you explore this in a vertical???......it would be interesting to compare if you did......as I personally would have tried to eliminate the house.......even if it is minor......and see what that would have brought.......although you were almost maxed out on the 28-135.....and not sure the extra 10mm would have tightened it up enough. Overall......nicely seen and a minor crop........will further strengthen the composition.