I love sewage!

[Richard Stern]

Pied-billed Grebe at Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Az recently.

D300, Nikon 80-400 at 400mm., hand held, no flash, ISO 800, 1/1000, f5.6.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

I love sewage too and I love Pied-billed Grebes. Nice EXP and reflection.

This is a perfect example of how a poor head angle combined with slightly off-angled light (from the right) can pretty much destroy an image; with the bird's head angled away from you there is zero light on the bird's face.... Some work on the eye might improve it a bit but better to wait for the correct head turn....

[Daniel Cadieux]

In addition to above, the image is quite oversharpened. The head angle doesn't look bad to my eyes (looks parallel), but I fully agree that for this light angle it would have been better turned towards you a bit more. If there is any way to get lower at that location without introducing BG distractions it would be a good idea. Cute little guy, I'm sure he gave you many opportunities :-)

[Arthur Morris]

The head angle doesn't look bad to my eyes (looks parallel), but I fully agree that for this light angle it would have been better turned towards you a bit more.

Hey Daniel, Here is something important that I have rarely spoken of before; if the bird's body is angled toward the photographer (as it is here), having the head parallel to the imaging sensor is not good (enough). It needs to be parallel to the bird's body.

If not (as here), the head angle looks wierd though it is parallel to the back of the camera.

Does that make sense?

[Daniel Cadieux]

When put in that way, yes I see what you mean. Thanks for the explanation of what you meant :-)