Another Spoonbill

[Jory Griesman]

Another spoonbill from my trip with James Shadle on the Hooptie Deux last week.

Nikon D300, 600 mm f/4 VR, f/11 at 1/800 sec, ISO 400, manual exposure.

[Fabs Forns]

Great pose and wingspan, EXP right on and clean BG. Since the bird is landing, the negative space should be in front of him to give him space to fall into, not behind him.
Keep them coming!

[James Shadle]

Jory,
Great action! You nailed the exposure and the image is tack sharp.
The eye contact is a bonus!
The only thing I would add is, that IMO having more canvas at the bottom and a little less at the top would make this an even stronger image.
Is this full frame or a crop?
James

[Jory Griesman]

Thanks, Fabs, you're 100% right. There wasn't much room on the original to work with, so I cropped tighter on top, and added new canvas/water on the bottom. Didn't want to add more water, as I thought it might be too obvious/repetitive. Hope this is a bit better.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The comp is much improved on the repost. There is indeed some repetitiveness in the added canvas below, but that is easily fixable with the patch and/or clone tools. A definite step in the right direction!

[James Shadle]

The repost is much better! Composition could be looser and still top shelf.
James

[Blake Shadle]

Really nice work, Jory. Previous comments aside, the only thing that I would consider the next time you're out in the field is opening her up a bit. f/11 is a bit small IMO, and is making for a distracting marbled effect on your background. The 600mm f/4 shot at f/6.3 would have been great for creating a nice background.

[Philip Pietri]

Jory, awesome shot here. Looks like you went back home with some sweet images! I second Blakes suggestion on opening your aperture up for some softer bg's. Other than that your repost works well. Good light, exposure, pose, sharpness and all that jazz. It was a pleasure meeting you and discussing the WalMart wildlife. Peace.

[Jory Griesman]

Thanks, Blake and Philip, for my tour of Gibsonton. Blake, you're right - I would have done better with a more wide open aperture, and can't recall what possessed me to be shooting at f/11 at that point!

[Grady Weed]

I'll say one thing. The Batman look here is killer. A very nice image. Good exposure, light and framing. Funny, I grew up in Gibsonton and my mom still lives close by there today.