SoCal Snowy

[Graham Owen]

http://www.solarexpert.com/photography/birds/snowy-egret-flying.jpg

I just love it when unexpected surprises happen. I was on the Balboa Island pier in Newport Beach with my son, watching the surfers next to the pilings, when I noticed a snowy egret land on a railing about 20 feet away, and as I lifted my camera to my eye, it flew directly towards me, and passed in front of me less than ten feet away, luckily with sweet morning light on the back of my shoulder. I feel very happy to have captured this brief encounter and don’t know what I could have done differently to improve upon, so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated and kept in mind.

D200, 70-200 f/2.8 @ 140mm, 1/640 sec @ f/10, 0 EV Comp, ISO 250.

I am sure if I had expected this opportunity I would have dialed in -0.3 EV, as well as higher ISO and faster shutter speed. But I think this image turned out relatively well, considering the circumstances. I cropped a little bit all the way around... perhaps a bit too tight...

Graham

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Good flight capture Graham and excellent exposure. My one suggestion is I would like to see a little more room on the bottm. It appears tight to me in the bottom right hand corner. thanks for sharing.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice wing position and light. The bird is a bit too tight in the frame. Did you apply NR on the plumage? There is surprisingly little detail compared with the sharpness of the eye.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Graham I like this a lot Agree with Judy on the little extra room at the bottom The soft morning light made the image About the only thing different would be the wing in the full up position but this is very close Excellent sharpness and made at the precise time not after the bird was going away !!! Big Congrats !!

[Arthur Morris]

Very well done. Way sharp and the exposure is fine. I would go a bit wider and tone down the electric blue sky a bit by reducing the blue SAT. Lastly, there is a whitish cloud or vapor trail coming diagonally out from the bend of the wing that you might want to get rid of.

later and love, artie

[Sid Garige]

All the nits covered in previous posts. I really like the exposure on this.

[Blake Shadle]

Nice image. Everyone has made some very good suggestions. Artie's got a keen eye, and found something I have to admit I didn't notice until he mentioned it.

[Graham Owen]

Thank you Judy, Axel, Alfred, Artie, Sid and Blake, thank you very much. This morning I will work on trying to apply your recomendations. Axel, I didn't apply NR anywhere, just a minor curves adjustment, touch of USM, and crop. I agree the bird is too tight in the bottom right hand corner. I've always found the legs and feet of snowy's to be the most interesting part, and I likely cropped too tight there because thats where I liked having my eye drawn towards. My mistake.

Cheers,
Graham

[Graham Owen]

I tried making some quick improvements, and realize that I need to spend more time practicing my Photoshop skills. I recently purchased Artie's APTATS-1 CD, which I love, but now I need to learn to put this knowledge to work for me. I think the image below looks somewhat sterile, or bland, perhaps I'll do a better job tonight after work. Thanks again everyone, you have no idea how much I appreciate having masters advising me!

http://www.solarexpert.com/photography/birds/bird-album/Snowy-Egret-in-flight-2.jpg

[Blake Shadle]

The background is more of what I would have expected to see. The cloning you did on the vapor trail is noticable (give it a little more time after work ;)) While you're in there cloning, make sure to get rid of the dust spot below and to the left of the Snowy. With this crop, you have his body running along the lower "third-line", and the bend of his wing is right at the top "third-line". Very much improved.