Anhinga

[Colin Driscoll]

An Anhinga (Darter or Snake-bird) calling.

Found this one difficult to crop so not sure how it works.

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh296/MyPikkies/Other%20Birds/DarterCalling080110.jpg

50D 100-400 @400 1/640 f5.6 -1ev iso100 HH

PS I left the twigs in as they were lifting the bird's feathers.

[Colin Knight]

I love this one, Colin.

I think I would still lose the twigs though, the ones touching the bird and the ones in the upper left of the image. Great perch, HA, eye contact, sharpness, exposure...it all works very well for me.

Thanks for posting!

[Randy Stout]

Colin:

I like the bird,angle,calling pose, feet, exposure.

I would also try a version without the sticks. I don't think it will look unnatural to have the feathers fluffed up in one small spot.

I might also try to smooth out the black blobs in the background on the upper left. Subtle, but just enough to get me wondering what was there.

I can also easily see a more vertical crop, with about 1/3 of the left side free space cropped away. I might even add just a sliver to the top, combined with the left crop.

Cheers

Randy

[Marina Scarr]

You did great with exposing this bird. I love the pose, the HA, the wonderful behavior and you have a nice green BG. What you choose to clone out is a personal choice you have to make. Would the picture look better without the trigs and the branches in the BG on the left? Probably. Would it be what you saw? Absolutely not. You could have two versions of the picture. If I had to make a choice I think I would leave in the trig touching the bird b/c it's part of the story/habitat, and I would clone out the branches in the BG to give it a really clean BG.

[Tom Walters]

These look like such strange birds close up, the great light gives the bird an almost surreal look to it to me, which is a good thing :)

IMO the branches near the bird I like, the branches/etc in the BG maybe lose.