Jay at Puddle

Nice to get back snapping. Not much at the pools with the wet weather obviously not helping. The quarry I worked last year is a massive shallow lake and has been for two and a half months. If it stays like it - wil be a good migrant spring.
D7100
!000 Iso F9 @180th second (awful light.)
70% of ful frame
I take this chance of taking the opportunity to wish all my supporters the best wishes for the future. It seems sad and a little petty that we can go about our snapping hobby with no problems whilst there are so many conflicts, around the world ,depriving people of a normal life. Perhap we shoud think about it it a bit more . I know that a heck of a lot of us do though .
Best wishes.
John Robinson.

nice capture Johny of these flighty birds,and best wishes to you too.

Its got some impact John ,a very underestimated Bird,i had a pair roosting last summer in a tree in my garden,just wish now I had set up for some shots

A nice bird and pose here John. Well done....poor light is something I live with a lot when I do photography. One just has to do one's best and occasionally some good comes.

A very pleasing image of a lovely bird. I would have personally liked it to be a eye level shot, but yes, most of the times it might not be feasible.

Nice image John. So much different than our Jays here. Nice to see the bird in it's environment/habitat. Thank you for sharing.

Very pretty bird posed nicely in this pool setting. Really the only aspect of the image that I could see improving on is the post processing work. The selection around the bird, particularly around the bill, head, and back left areas of the bird's plumage/features smudgy looking and not sharp, compared with areas that avoided the selection process like the eye and secondaries/body...probably done when running NR or a slight blur on the background....

Thanks all.
Well spotted Shawn.I didn;t notice it untill I blew it up, but I had about 8 of these which I had been messing about with and probably picked a bad one. certainly a sloppy selection with an adjustment layer I think. To be honest I cant remember half the time what I,ve done ! I dont mind taking the stuff but hate the pp. I Heres another one from the same batch- slightly smaller in frame.Bit noisy but with my selection skills I,ll leave it!
Cheers
JohnR

This is better John...colours more accurate too. Original a bit too reddish.
Personally I have less of a problem with noise (grain type) than most others. The problem with noise, is that it does not translate as well on a monitor when sometimes in print it can give a beautiful photographic quality rather than an inverted mirror like appearance without soul.

I personally like the tighter comp of the original, mainly due to the BG being less in focus and I'd probably go somewhere in the middle on the colors. Great looking bird that looks like it about to enjoy your bath you set up.

I like the repost much more in terms of comp and IQ.
The colors are so different that I am unsure which is more accurate as I have never seen this bird in real life,
Gail

I too like the re-post better IMO. The colors in the OP look a bit over saturated, especially compared to the re-post. What a great looking bird and you did a good job capturing him.
I like the habitat too :)

Beautiful bird and capture, John. I too prefer the composition and color difference in the repost.




Geoffrey

Thanks all
Yes the clour in the Op was way off. Why Ipotd hsatone I don't know.
Cheers
JohnR