Early Morning Trumpeter

[Arthur Morris]

This bird was a regular along a small stretch of the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park. On our last morning before heading down to Jackson Hole Denise Ippolito and I opted to try for the bird in early morning light. We did well.

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/640 at f/5.6.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Dan Brown]

Beautiful BG, wing position and sharpeness Artie! I do wish for a bit more room in front of the swan though.

[Sid Garige]

You caught him in action Artie. Very nice take off action.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the action,light,colors...agree for a bit more room in front of the bird

[Arthur Morris]

This bird was a regular along a small stretch of the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park. On our last morning before heading down to Jackson Hole Denise Ippolito and I opted to try for the bird in early morning light. We did well.

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/640 at f/5.6.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Thanks Dan. I agree but I was glad to fit the thing in the frame with the 800....

[John Guastella]

Lovely mixure of light orange and blue reflections in the BG. You might consider cloning out the black shadows at the very top of the frame, as they are mildly distracting.

What a neck on this bird!

John

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although more room in front would have been nice, I find that the splashing action behind the swan balances out the comp some as it makes the right side of the frame appear lighter and looser. I like the wingtips touching the water.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Beautiful background. Wingtips touching the water and the splash work very well.

[thijs broekkamp]

Nice pose, good action moment and nice light. On the top of the neck is almost too white, but it's not yet disturbing.

[Chris Kotze]

Super light and colours. Lovely take off captured and great action

[Ben_Sadd]

Love the gold tinted water. I agree on the space up front, but also realise that getting it in the frame at all is not easy.

[Amano Samarpan]

Since you invite comments Artie, I shall respond, but the image is striking and perhaps requires none!

I find myself looking at the colours here ... could the orange be a little more golden!? I did try to do this using a Hue-Saturation layer in Photoshop but did not really get anywhere!

There is blue on the back ... I decided to use a Burn-Dodge layer (50% grey) to lighten the white of the bird hence making it stand out and reducing the bluish colour caste; the neck however, was darkened slightly.

To overcome the dead-centre look of the image, I cut off a strip to the left, loosing a bit of spray and water droplets but still keeping enough to make it part of the image. This crop allows greater space in front of the bird and hence space for it to be flying into!

I also straightened the image a little, bringing up the head in the frame.

Better!? It is just how I see it but this actually is my first repost in this forum since I am wary of interfering with the vision of other's!!

Cheers

Amano
:)

[Amano Samarpan]

I also removed the descending black blur at the top of the image ... this happened as the crop was made and seemed appropriate.

Amano

[Jim Fenton]

Cool subject and like the repost with more room up front.

I might lighten the closes wing just a bit along with the back and perhaps even try to loose the cyan tint to it and warm it up (those particular areas) a bit.

[Marina Scarr]

I prefer the original post in all respects except for the darker band at the top. That was the only negative I could see with the original post. I love the light and the way the swan glows in it. I think the original crop works b/c you really have to see the water spraying behind the bird to get a feel for the motion. Well see and captured.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for your kind words and constructive criticisms. The rear half of the bird was actually in the faint shadow of a distant tree behind us. I went with a tighter pano crop and eliminated most of the color cast in the near-wing and removed BLACK from the WHITE in Selective Color as well. Surprisingly there was not a lot of CYAN or BLUE in the wing so I did a 60% DESAT on the entire image and used Denise Ippolito's great paint back the effect technique to apply the changes only to the near wing.

Special thanks to Amano for getting me headed in the right direction (though I do not like the crop from the rear for the reasons stated by Dan. Dan; got your e-mail. I am looking forward to seeing you again on this FEB;s SW FLA IPT. Randy Stout will also be along. See the post in the Workshops Forum for BPN member discounts on all regular IPTs.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super...see you and Randy then!

[Doug Brown]

Getting in a little late at this point, but I thought I'd add in my 2 cents. Love the downbeat of the wings and the golden water. I don't mind the blue sky reflection on the bird's wings; I hear the same comment about Bosque Cranes. As pointed out above, I would like a little more room in front of the bird, but I understand the challenge of fitting a large bird in the frame with 800mm.

[Scott Noakes]

Arthur,
I really liked the original, I know how hard it was getting a good shot of this bird, I stopped several times and tried with different light. I'm not happy with anything I got, not to mention that I never was lucky to get him in anything but swimming or feeding.

Scott

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Scott, I got a whole bunch of nice keepers on our last morning (that was our first with this bird) in Yellowstone. There was a nice wing flap in Bulletin 242. (http://www.birdsasart.com/2010/10/13/birds-as-art-bulletin-342/) I hope that you stick around.....