These guys are hard to shoot. At a decent ISO, getting a shutter speed that stops their quick motion, and a DOF that covers enough of the body, is a balancing act. So is keeping an active sensor on their head. Good practice. There are usually a few keepers that are sharp, but I delete a lot.
Canon 5D Mk III, 600mm II + 1.4X III. Big Gitzo with Wimberley II. ISO 800, f/11, 1/800 sec. About 50% crop. Basic LR adjustments for Shadows and Highlights, then to PS CS 6 for minor BG cleanup (specks on water). The reflection was lightened near the bottom edge to minimize the chopped-off appearance. The original frame includes all of it but it was rather odd-looking, sort of like one of those crazy wavy mirrors.
I would have liked to get lower but a large resident flock of Canada Geese had camped on the shore.
06-28-2013, 11:59 PM
Allen Sparks
Hi Diane, nice sharp capture of the body and I love that water drop off the beak. I like the circles in the water too. Nice pose you captured. Light angle seems to be from behind making those shadows on the body.
06-29-2013, 03:57 AM
PhilCook
Loving the tip toe posture Dianne, and the single , very dainty droplet off the bill is nicely timed. Another example of where a square crop works OK, cant think of any other way of composing this one...a little less shadow on the right side of the face would be ideal....but what can ya do sometimes
06-29-2013, 07:55 AM
Miguel Palaviccini
Diane,
You sure are right about trying to get good focus on the head! It's all a balancing act.
As mentioned above, the light angle isn't ideal. Hopefully you can get back out there and bring back some more good ones!
Miguel
06-29-2013, 02:49 PM
Randy Stout
Dianne:
The delicate drop still connected to the tip of the bill is great, the difficult light angle mentioned.
Nice call on massaging the reflection at the frame edge to stop it from leading our eye out of the frame.
Cheers
Randy
06-29-2013, 06:33 PM
Diane Miller
Thanks for the comments! I agree on the light angle not being the best. I did lighten the darker side of the head some. The way the shore is angled here, at a couple of shallow areas they frequent, there is just no way to get the sun behind me, even at mid-summer sunrise. Need to find another location for them.
