Snowy blur

[Indranil Sircar]

Here is a snowy from couple of weeks ago. I found if I can get the blur as they take off, it creates a more pleasing blur. After couple of days of trying, I finally got few presentable ones! Split and contrasting bg was not ideal, but i liked this one with circular wing flap the best. The settings were -

7D, 70-200mm F4 IS + 1.4x TC @ 280mm hand held
1/8 sec, f/9 Mode: Tv Metering: Evaluative ISO: 100

Copied and overlay the layers and opened up the darker side using a layer mask. Sharpened the head. Applied Topaz denoise and usm on the final web version. Hope you like it. Your c&c will be appreciated...

[denise ippolito]

Indranil, This is very nicely thought out and executed. I like the sense of motion. I'm wondering if bringing your subject down in the frame just a touch would look good also. I like the bi-colored BG.

[Paul Lagasi]

Very nice blur capture of snowy, maybe a bit tighter crop...might help with background..TFS

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Indranil, I like this a lot. I might be tempted to take a little from the bottom, thus creating more of a pano, although I've just looked at it again and now I'm not so sure. Either way I really love the BG. The circular movement of the wings is also very nice :)
Best,
Nicki

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful circular motion, Indranil! Very different and well thought out technique! I think this would be even stronger with the bird more towards the bottom right corner so it would look like it was crossing to the ULC. Still, a very strong image...nicely done!

[Indranil Sircar]

Denise, Paul, Nicki, Julie, Thanks for looking the comments. Appreciate it a lot. As suggested, here is the repost with a slightly different crop...