Horned Grebe

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Did I happen to mention how happy I am to have my lens back to working and giving me SHARP images. Wheww you don't realize how sharp till it aint sharp LOL. Got this grebe today at the end of my shoot. Same location as my previous one and I really did get lucky again. No fish this time but you gotta love that killer eye. I got a few nice shots.
Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1250
Av( Aperture Value ) 9.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation -1/3
ISO Speed 320
Lens EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x HH
70% of the original with rotation. selective sharpening

C&C appreciated always

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

For some reason the image looks way less contrast and sharp on BPN than on my monitor. I think it's time to calibrate?

[Randy Stout]

Cheryl:

Cute fellow, very interesting eye, the contrast and sharpness look OK to me.
Good shooting angle, drops, head angle.

I might trim about 1/4 of the free space off the top, personal preference.

Cheers

Randy

[Fred Canter]

Contrast and sharpness look OK to me also, love the water drops and the eye.
I'd be tempted to remove the partial reflection, just to see how it would look.
At first glance I thought it needed a slight rotation, but after studying it I'm not certain it does, the ripples in front makes
me think it does but the bird looks level.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Cheryl, the low perspective works well, as does the swimming pose and HA. Contrast looks spot on, and with wet plumage, it is difficult to judge sharpness. Overall, the grebe is sharp, droplets stand out, and I would remove the tiny lower catchlight in the eye.

[gail bisson]

Hi Cheryl,
Great low angle and perfect head turn. I like the 2 big droplets of water on the grebe's back. Would remove the second catchlight. Nice composition.Very nice,
Gail

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Simply love the eye here !! Nice low angle works here .

[Daniel Cadieux]

I photographed my first Horned Grebes this past fall and I too was stricken with their amazing eyes!! Nice imge with a perfect HA...and I love the towel-dried look to the head and neck feathers:S3: I also get a feeling that CW rotation may be needed, but not much if any.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Cheryl, the low perspective works well, as does the swimming pose and HA. Contrast looks spot on, and with wet plumage, it is difficult to judge sharpness. Overall, the grebe is sharp, droplets stand out, and I would remove the tiny lower catchlight in the eye.

Thanks everybody. I removed the 2nd catchlite... much better. I also rotated some more and took a bit off the right side.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific eye, which looks razor sharp to me. Great HA. Repost is an improvement, although I might have taken a slivver off the top. Might need just a little NR on the BG, or maybe my monitor's dirty.

[Karl Egressy]

For some reason the image looks way less contrast and sharp on BPN than on my monitor. I think it's time to calibrate?

DNice shot, Cheryl. I recently calibrated all my lenses on a my 7D as they were calibrated only on the MIV up until now.
I was shocked, when it came to the 300 f2.8 L IS. With the 1.4 it was at -7 with the 2x it was +8 and by itself it was +5.
It was all over the place. I used LensAlign and the repeated test showed the same.
So it might be a good idea to do the test.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Cheryl! I like the low angle, wet look, water drops, pose and eye. Repost looks better.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

DNice shot, Cheryl. I recently calibrated all my lenses on a my 7D as they were calibrated only on the MIV up until now.
I was shocked, when it came to the 300 f2.8 L IS. With the 1.4 it was at -7 with the 2x it was +8 and by itself it was +5.
It was all over the place. I used LensAlign and the repeated test showed the same.
So it might be a good idea to do the test.

Wow Karl, you mean the microadjustment? Thats a big scale. I actually sent it to be microadjusted and that's when I found there was something wron with it. Canon fixed it.

[Josh Clark]

Great shot Cheryl! Very well captured image of this Horned Grebe, you did him proud here. Love that low angle you got here and the water beads on its back and throughout are an added plus. BG compliments the Grebe very well also.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice head turn and I like those wet feathers. eye looks a bit funny to me? did you do any processing?

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Love the shooting angle, I really like the wet feathers, great head angle, and I really like the repost.
Well done.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

nice head turn and I like those wet feathers. eye looks a bit funny to me? did you do any processing?

Hey Arash,
I'm not sure actually. I processed a few images and some of them I lightened the iris area a little and darkened the pupil. There eyes do come out looking weird but cool. I did remove the 2nd catchlight in the repost and it seemed to make it better.