willow ptarmigan

[thijs broekkamp]

Hello,
This is my first post here. I will introduce myself a bit here. I'm thijs broekkamp, 15 years old now, and i live in the netherlands. Since 1,5 year seriously into photographing. I saw this willow ptarmigan on holiday in fins lapland on a snowshoe walk, and the bird flew in front of me and followed me for like a half an hour! This photo was made with my compact, lumix dmc-fz50, before i had my dslr. I cropped a little, take the contrast up.
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/wildlife13/moerassneeuwhoenvoornss.jpg

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Thijs! Very nice first post. I like the high key and unusual composition. Adjusting the midtones brings out a bit more separation between the plumage and snow. There are some artifacts in the background due to compression. You can post images up to 200kB. I look forward to more of your images.

[Randy Stout]

Thijs:

Thanks for posting this one, and a big welcome to BPN. It is a great place to learn. Many talented photographers here who are willing to help.

I agree with Axel's tech. comments. For my taste you do need to generate at least a touch of separation between the birds plumage and the snow. Not much, just enough to discern it.

Look forward to more images.

Randy

[Tony Whitehead]

Welcome, Thijs. Lovely first post - I am a big fan of high key images like this. I agree with Axel and Randy that some separation of the bird and BG is important. I have tried a version pushing the midpoint slider on a levels adjustment layer to the right (probably too far by way of illustration) then masking that just to the bird's plumage. I also selected the reds and desaturated them slightly as this can bring out a little more detail if they are clipping. Looking forward to more of your images.

[John Chardine]

But I just love the original idea here. Well done Thijs! Essentially the bird disappears into the BG which is exactly what evolution had in mind for a Willow Ptarmigan. Tony's repost is another interpretation which I like as well.

At 15 years old you have a big head start on most of us, so I suggest we all watch this young photographer! You will find BPN very useful Thijs.

[Desmond Chan]

I quite like the idea, too. I may be tempted to add just a tad of details to the bird though. Perhaps some crop off the top, too !

I've never seen that bird before and so thank you for sharing your photo of it !!

[thijs broekkamp]

Thank you all for the comments. Very usefull comment about the bg and the bird. @Tony, thank you for making that. Looks really good!

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Thijs, Welcome. I love seeing young folks into bird photography. While I appreciate Tony's repost and his great work here at BPN, (albeit for high pay :) :) :)--not!) I gotta say that I love your original interpretation. Congrats and we hope to see you hanging around here some more.