Something good down there?

[Daniel Cadieux]

With the Great Egret holding this pose for a while it was logical to rotate the camera over to take some verticals. When I first viewed this image on my LCD this is the final comp I had in mind. Full-frame except for the trimming right and left for the pano crop.

edit: I should have cloned out the small debris on the forehead near the eye...how in the world did I miss that!! :-)

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/500s., f/8, ISO 640, +1.7 EC, natural light, handheld.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_GreatEgret_8971-01.jpg

[Alfred Forns]

I like the pose Daniel Selected crop is just perfect Don't see many like this Big Congrats !!!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

A fun one, with cute title. Effective use of DOF> I like the framing. I like seeing a side view of the corneas, and the hint of lores color.

It might be interesting to have just a bit more canvas at the very bottom, to strengthen the looking down impression.

Cheers

Randy

[Kim Rollins]

Well this one just doen't work for me personally.

Detail lacking in whites of bird & noise a bit distracting. Beak, eyes etc. could stand additional selective sharpening IMO.

[Stu Bowie]

Perfect symmetry with the eyes captured nicely Daniel. I think the comp works well as is. Something different, and well done.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love it, great crop and exposure control, I love the pose and BG. Congratulations!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the crop and the pose!

[Stephen Stephen]

Dan great image here. Having both eyes visible really balances the bird.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well this one just doen't work for me personally.

Detail lacking in whites of bird & noise a bit distracting. Beak, eyes etc. could stand additional selective sharpening IMO.

Hi Kim. I usually don't like defend my images and respect everyone's opinion about them. I can understand the image not working for you...I'm OK with that and appreciate the honesty. But looking at my image again noise is virtually a non-issue, and the eyes and upper half of the bill are as sharp as can be (lower half affected by DOF). Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything??

[Dave Phillips]

a real unique keeper Daniel.........unusual view that will always get a second look.
I see no noise issue at all.

"might" try to sharpen up right at tip of bill, but that is a preference only ni.

I really like it, borderless or with a wide matte

[Kim Rollins]

Hi Kim. I usually don't like defend my images and respect everyone's opinion about them. I can understand the image not working for you...I'm OK with that and appreciate the honesty. But looking at my image again noise is virtually a non-issue, and the eyes and upper half of the bill are as sharp as can be (lower half affected by DOF). Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything??

Hi Daniel -

It seem to me there is really not a need for any of us to "defend our images from critique". Our critique is all opinion and nothing more. Critique is only a learning tool for consideration by the photographer. No matter what critique we get if we are satisfied with our own images then... we have completed our job and the critique then does not matter.

I meant no offense and I just give my honest opinion of what I see with this image. I would like to see a bit more detail in the whites of the bird and here I am really speaking about the head/neck above the eyes and beak. I just don't think that detail exists, thus my comment -"Detail lacking in whites of bird".

Noise - now this is something you will probably hear me comment less about then probably anyone active on the forum. I often see some noise as a benefit. My comments on 'noise' above was not because there is a lot of it in this image but rather because of the subtle lighting and colors the little noise that exist is "a bit" distracting to me.

Sharpness is something else I like less of then many do, as for this image and as I said I think areas could benefit from some more final sharpening.

Here is a very "quick and dirty rework" of your image hoping to show less noise in the bg and more detail in "beak and eyes". Again "quick and dirty rework" and not much time spent on it at all, it is a bit rough IMO but possibly you can see what I speak of.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/110991635/original.jpg

Only my opinions here.

Best to you