Pied-Billed Grebe Chicks are growing

[Stephen Stephen]

I created this image two weekends ago. There were 3 active Pied-Billed Grebes nests in one large man-made flood control pond.

This is obviously one of the oldest chicks who was actively swimming about while waiting for one of the parents to bring it food.

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 50-500mm at 500mm. 1/500 sec, f/6.3 ISO Equiv.: 320

Cloned out a couple of stray pieces of floating vegetation and cropped to about 70% of full frame. I woud have preferred a lower angle by the bank is very steep and the water's edge now has high vegetation growing up. I do like the head reflection though.


http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s219/Squidcan/Birds3/Pied_Billed_Grebe_36.jpg

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful capture of this little baby Stephen. Very nice exposure and wonderful eye contact. Love the smooth water except for the ripples made by the little grebe. The reflection is a great bonus. Fine work Stephen and thanks for sharing.

[Stu Bowie]

Stephen, I feel with a lower angle, you may have lost the reflection, so this works for me. Good HA, and just enough space all round. The water looks pretty clear.

[Daniel Cadieux]

They sure have grown quickly!! Nice patterns and colours on their faces. I missed them this year due to other commitments:(. As mentioned by Stuart, the higher angle was advantageous to showing off the reflection. Looks like it may need a bit of a CW rotation...

[Paul Lagasi]

Cool image Stephen, nice reflection, gotta love these youngsters.... never did get out to see them..too much golf happening..

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Stephen,
Cute little guy nicely presented! I agree with the others that the strong reflections adds a lot to this image. A lower capturing angle might have been nice but would have resulted in a different image.
I also agree with Daniel about the rotation. If you draw a line with the ruler tool from eye to eye it yields that a clockwise rotation of 1.45 degrees might be worth considering.

Thanks for sharing!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good eye contact, calm water and reflection. Adding to the other comments, I might tone down the whites a bit and wish the body were angled toward you.

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Judy, Stuart, Dan, Paul Phil and Axel for your kind words. I'll also take another look at the angle.

[Harshad Barve]

Beautiful image for all reasons said above and agreed on tonong downthe whites
TFS

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Harshad.