GBH in Flight

[Sid Garige]

D300, 200-400mm VR
F13, 1/30sec

[Malcolm Benn]

I like the sense of speed conveyed by the wing blur, the panning blur and the position of the bird within the frame.

[Danny J Brown]

You've done well with this blurry action shot, Sid. I love the flapping wings. You preserved the head focus well with everything else in movement. Whites are a little loud but overall a compelling shot. If only the bird was on the "correct" side of the frame......;););):):)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Interesting effect with the pan-blur. I actually like the OOTB comp. I just wish the heron wasn't angling away from you. The face is rather light, and hot in spots - that can be taken care of during RAW conversion. A couple of dust bunnies need to be swept away;).

[Arthur Morris]

The position in the frame bugs me a lot more than the BAA (bird angled away). If you had panned faster you would have much more of the striking dark stuff on the left. Love the pan-blurred BKGR. f/13 or smaller is best for maximizing dust spots. :) Yes to the hot whites.

[Sid Garige]

Interesting effect with the pan-blur. I actually like the OOTB comp. I just wish the heron wasn't angling away from you. The face is rather light, and hot in spots - that can be taken care of during RAW conversion. A couple of dust bunnies need to be swept away;).

Daniel,

I over exposed it by almost 1&1/2 stops and could not recover the whites in raw conversion. I guess I was not keep an eye on histogram constantly. Will try to work on it.

Agree with you on bird angle.

thanks
sid

[Sid Garige]

If only the bird was on the "correct" side of the frame......;););):):)

Danny,

you know I was pushing my luck...:D

[Sid Garige]

The position in the frame bugs me a lot more than the BAA (bird angled away). If you had panned faster you would have much more of the striking dark stuff on the left. Love the pan-blurred BKGR. f/13 or smaller is best for maximizing dust spots. :) Yes to the hot whites.

Artie,

After seeing Thomas Mangelsen's Swift Fox image, for fun I decided to try a little Out of Box comp. http://www.mangelsen.com/store/Limit...ift_Fox___2908

We have been sharing our thoughts on this comp at http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53681 if you have not noticed.

Thanks
Sid

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, After seeing Thomas Mangelsen's Swift Fox image, for fun I decided to try a little Out of Box comp. http://www.mangelsen.com/store/Limit...ift_Fox___2908 We have been sharing our thoughts on this comp at http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53681 if you have not noticed.
Thanks Sid

Thanks for the link Sid. I have put in my four cents. I am cut and pasting the text below from there as it is relevant here.

"It seems here that your reason for creating the non-traditional composition was to create a non-traditional composition (rather then to get the viewer to think, to include another element in the image, or to sell an idea or concept)."

In retrospect, the "it seems" is incorrect as you actually stated that your only purpose was to create a non-traditional COMP.

[arash_hazeghi]

I love the panning blurry wings and the flight trajectory that is visible in this shot. I would personally prefer a panorama crop with a bit more space to the left. TFS

[Hendri Venter]

Very good panning shot Sid. The head and feet nice and sharp. I like it.

[david cramer]

For some unknown reasons to me I like this comp better than I like the swift fox (which I did not like and voted accordingly). While I would still prefer more room on the left, I have an overall positive reaction to this image. Perhaps it the blurring (which is done very well) rather than a sharp image, or perhaps it's the heavier colored bg that transitions from light to dark. That transition seems to anchor the bird whereas the fox had no such anchoring. Or maybe I'm just warming up to this type of composition having viewed it a few times. Thanks for posting.

After I posted this reply another thought occurred to me that I think influences why I like this image better than the fox. It is moving right to left. We normally view an image based on our reading patterns, and in my case that is left to right. The heron is moving "upstream" so to speak, against the grain. This implies it is emotionally moving against a force, which holds it in place in the image, like a fish swimming upstream. The fox is moving with the flow (with the grain) and feels to me like it is being swept out of the image. For me, at least, that seems to be a major factor in why I react more positively to your heron image.