The Entertainer

[Alfred Forns]

From Marco Island One of my favorite birds to photograph !!!

Comments welcome and much appreciated

Canon 1DsMk2
500 f 4.0 IS 1.5X
f 8.0 1/1250
ISO 250
Av 0

[Mike Milicia]

Nice low angle, beautiful setting and background, and great pose !
I like the pano crop but I keep thinking maybe I'd prefer the bird a bit more to the right
in the frame. Hard to say without seeing it both ways, though.

[garethnewns]

Great image! i think i agree about the cropping though.

[Andrew McCullough]

Nice. Great pose. I actually like the crop as it is. I like the room between the wing and the right side of the frame.

[Krijn Trimbos]

This is a tricky one....;) I tend to agree with the cropping comments cause of the head position (pointing to the left), but the wing is kinda blocking the 'going more to the right scenario'. As a result the bird itself would be quite centered. Maybe more room on the left en less at the right would be the answer if you have it..... In any case this is only minor, it is a great shot as is! :)

[Mike McCarthy]

I love it Al. Nice action capture. The mouth open is priceless. Need to add some audio of an opera to this. :-) Along with the action I like the low angle and the overal color and mood presented. Nice job. I don't see too many of these birds in this area. Do they not like ospreys? lol I'm not too worried about the direction of the bird in relationsip to teh composition. I feel too many folks read teh "literal" interpretation of the action into their compostion. If this was just an abstract shape...the long poointed triangular shape (wing) leads the viewer into the frame. It has a nice balance so no problems withthe way it is. I might actually emphasis the long stretched wint and leave more room to the right and shave off a tad on the left. It would also work with more room tothe front of the bird...Either way...me likey. :-)

[Arthur Morris]

You gotta know when to break the "rules" with a purpose as Alfredo did here. For me, the composition is perfect. What bugs me is that the near-leg has sand on it which obscures it as it blends into the background. As beautiful as the image is for all the reasons listed above, my eye is attracted to the blurry leg...

later and love, am

[D. Robert Franz]

I think the orange beak against the blue water (complimentery colors if I recall correctly) gives the birds head the visual center of interest. I find the comp pleasing. A couple of OOF grassed in the FG in front of the tail detract a bit. Overall very strong...

[hugh robateau]

Lovely pose, Al!!!

[Jim Fenton]

This image doesn't do it for me and after studying it for a while, I think it's two reasons:

A) The bird is just too left for me. I'm certainly not one to follow the compositional rule of thirds all of the time but the direction of activity is so far left that my eye doesn't go there as it moves to the left side of the frame. I think perhaps that if it were less of a distant shot and there was some detail on the face which actually focused attention, the position wouldn't be an issue for me.

B) The OOF grass / foreground at the birds rear leg is what grabs my eye. It is OOF / congested enough that it almost looks as though that area could be another bird hunkered down or something. It's almost appears as though the bird is disjointed at the hip there. While I know that it isn't the case, the confusion at that area simply is what grabs my eye. Overall, the subject just isn't strong enough in it's framed position to overcome the spot which my eye is drawn to.

Just my 2 cents.

[Glenn Bartley]

Really nice image Al. This is one of those ones you have to look at and ponder for a while. My first thought was for more room to the left. But the composition as presented is growing on me :)

[Richard Bledsoe]

Very good image. My inclination is to see an image from left to right so I flipped the canvas horizontally, check it out.

[Eric Wikander]

I love the image and have to say the crop ads to the photo for me. I am sure this was a tuff decision as this photo could have been framed a couple different ways and I am sure it was. I think the subject is balanced well in the frame and to me the head does not dictate moving the subject further left or right. Well done!

[Jody Melanson]

Wonderful image, Al. Love the muted BG colours, the low angle and the action going on.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great image. I'm wondering if the skimmer in the BG is the 'entertainee' or part of it. :)

[James Salywoda]

Beautiful image Al great pano presentation. I love the pose captured and title is perfect Excellent Job!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Great timing,congrats Alfred!