Greater Flamingo

[Phillip Tomkinson]

Taken at 6:45am in the camarge south of France this was the 5th go at getting this image as I had to walk out in to the lake in the dark then hope the birds would come past at first light. the lake is vast but not very deep it is around 12-30 inches deep but covers some thing like 20 square miles.

Phil.

D300 200 f2 vr + 2x tc 1/2000 @ f5.6 iso 400 HH

PP in Bibble & CS2

http://www.wildsnaps.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/flamingo-d300-01-hol-11hr.jpg

:S3:

[Bill Jobes]

A very pleasing image, indeed, Phillip !

Love the light turquoise hue to the water, and the beautiful plumage on the flamingos.

A very minor adjustment I might suggest is a very slight CW correction to the horizon.

I fully appreciate how we must often accept what Nature offers -- but wouldn't it have been wonderful if the third bird from the left was absent from the image? Its presence upsets the closer to 'ideal' spacing symmetry.

It may prove too daunting a task, and I would never suggest this for a competition entry -- but for an artistic photograph, cloning out that one bird could reveal a a masterpiece.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Interesting image here, and I don't mind the extra bird as I see that group as a group of three, with a leading bird ahead of them...I like the "reverse 4" leg position of one of the birds to create interest to the overall lines created by all the legs. I do wish the leading flamingo had its head turned more our way though. I'd also experiment cropping away a good chunk of canvas below (at least half the space). Thanks for the description of the lake...neat that it is big yet so shallow!

[Alan Murphy]

The birds lined up in focus is great. I find the objects on the horizon a bit distracting and would try a version with a pano crop or maybe cloning them out.