Australasian Grebe

[Dean Ingwersen]

Found a pair of these guys in a very small pond in a new housing estate, so easy to get closer to than normal (though still not frame-fillers ;)). Recent rain drops on the water added a bit of atmosphere I thought...comments welcome.

Taken with Canon 20D, 500 f/4, 1.4x TC, ISO 400, 1/250, f /6.3, AV, -1/3.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great angle and attentive pose of this pretty bird. I find the white spots quite distracting.

[Arthur Morris]

Very lovely. Great on the head turn and exposure. I can live with the specular highlights. Might go with more off the bottom as the complete head reflection is not there...

later and love, artie

[Alfred Forns]

I like the shadow detail and pose Agree on cropping some of the reflection

[Fabs Forns]

As one who loves specular highlights, I love the ones in the background, but get distracted with the ones in the front, maybe because they are bolder.
Cropping a bit may help,a dn I would treat the right bright ones as sensor dust: out!

[Robert Hawkins]

Nice image. I have one I took in 2005. Unfortunately it was not as good. Robert Hawkins, New Member

[Simon Bennett]

I like the alert pose and that the image is sharp and well exposed - it's ever so easy to overexpose that yellow bill spot - no evidence of that here. It seems specular highlights are an aquired taste.

[Ian Colley]

I like the pose and composition as well as the the colour of the water, the ripples have a nice effect in the overall shot. I also find the highlights distracting.

[Dean Ingwersen]

Hi all,

Thanks for the great feedback. Have done a quick and dirty job to try to utilise your suggestions...a bit of noise now but have run out of time for the moment to fiddle much more (and don't have a NR plug-in...yet!). Thanks again.

Cheers, Dean

[Glenn Ehmke]

This is a most pleasing improvement Dean, that noise should be easy to fix up. Nice job. Might be nice to keep a bit more of the reflection though......

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Definitely improved over the original post, Dean.