Pinkie wannabe with serious attitude

[Randy Stout]

This fellow was dancing at the north end of Little Estero, near the Holiday Inn. We were walking back from a good morning at Artie's recent IPT, and this fellow was fishing up a storm. The light was harsh, strong shadows, but I thought the behaviour, leucistic feathers and serious attitude display merited a few pictures.

D300 70-300 f/5.6 1/2000 ISO400 handheld

Post: CS5 selective sharpening, contrast adjustments, minor crop for comp

Advice and thoughts always appreciated. I pondered the sharp bill shadow, but elected to leave it as shot.

Cheers

Randy

[Aidan Briggs]

Agree with your critique here Randy. The behavior and detail are great but the light is poor. I am thinking a lower angle (if possible) would have improved this.

Looking forward to more Florida images!

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Aidan:

It is interesting how the conversion for web posting (jpg and final output sharpening) worsened the already high contrast issue. When I started with the adjusted raw file, I was reasonably happy with my contrast tweaks, but lost ground from there.

The repost shows a further reduction in the contrast. Still not great, but better I think.

This is also a good example of how your impression of the photo is so influenced by being there, remembering the coolness, that you tend to want to overlook the flaws!

Plus, my family loved the attitude of this guy!

Cheers

Randy

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Great capture. Given the long shadow from the head/bill it appears to be taken around noon. Very good job on managing the contrast in PS. JR

[Chris Martinez]

Conditions may not have been ideal but with wings spread, one foot raised, fixed gaze....... it's pretty darn cool!