Sunrise Spoonies - Does this work for you?

[Randy Stout]

Good afternoon all. This image was created at Alafia Banks when out with the BPN moderator crew after Artie's SW Florida IPT. While waiting to have some action shooting down the sun angle, noticed that Artie and James had wandered off behind the group to take advantage of the sunrise. It always pays to look behind yourself occ. when shooting.

There was a smattering of spoonies, reddish egrets and pelicans arrayed against the sunrise. Took a number of shots. I like the composition of this one, the balance of masses, and the nice sunrise color. Not thrilled about the sharpness of the flying spoonie. I believe the image still works, but I have stared at it so long, I wanted to seek other opinions. Also thought about removing a few of the bright mid air drops of water, haven't yet.

D700 600VR f/5.6 1.2500s ISO 800 Gitzo/Wimberley standing in the bay

Post: CS5 curves, selective sharpening. Full frame.

Advice and suggestions appreciated

Cheers

Randy

[Steven Kersting]

The bird on the left does, not so much the bird on the rt.

[Katie Rupp]

Randy, I love the rich golden color and the spoonie on the left but the one on the right should be sharper and needs to be angled in a more interesting way for this to work for me. And I totally understand the desire to keep an image that speaks to me in spite of....

Best,
Katie

[Arthur Morris]

I like the image design and balance but this is what I would do with it :) If it were mine.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks for the comments everyone, and for the repost Artie.
Pushing it further towards a pure silhouette works well, as does cleaning up the water drops.

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Glad that you liked. I also selected the flying bird, expanded it a bit, and did ran a rather major contrast mask....

[Steven Kersting]

I like the repost better, but still not so much on the flying bird.
I think it's because it's "just wings" and nothing very defining about it. The other bird you can still clearly define as a spoonbill even in silhouette.

[Steven Kersting]

This is what I see.

http://skguitar.com/photos/spoonBillSihouette.jpg

Obviously a hard crop, but since this is mostly about color and contrast I think it would stand up to enlarging and print quite well.

[arash_hazeghi]

The left spoonie alone might work but the first image does not.

[Stu Bowie]

Randy, silhouettes against lovely BG colours always work for me. Artie's repost does work with the darkening of the birds, but I would have maybe left the falling droplets.:w3

[Ben_Sadd]

I love the rich sunrise on the water. I like the stronger silhouette repost, but the flying bird still still bothers me somewhat. To me, it is a shame that bird is not a little more in profile.

[Doug Brown]

I would have to say that the OP is close but no cigar. The flying spoonie is OOF and you don't get a good look at the bill. Love the incredible water color. I'm going to Florida in a month, and hope to get color half as good as this!

[Roger Clark]

I agree with Doug. I love the colors, but... The "just wings" can work great, but in this case, there is an out-of-focus bill partially in view. It would be beter for no head/bill or a clear outline in focus. It would be nice if there were some sort of interaction between the two birds, but it seems like they are just strangers passing (which I guess is OK too if that's your interpretation).

[Randy Stout]

Thanks to everyone who commented on this one. Not my usual style of image, but that was the point really.
A study in color, forms, balance.

In listening to the great input, I will mark this one as a miss, but still like some of the elements enough to try something similar in the future.

I really do appreciate the time people spent on it.

Cheers

Randy