Theme: Early Morning Chase

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO400~F9~1/1000sec~manual exposure~10-18-2009~Brays Bayou, Houston, Texas~CS4/Topaz Simplify2
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill (original image to follow)
Denise: I forgot to put Theme in front of title.

about 7:30 AM, 2 Great Egrets /regards~Bill

Hi Bill, I added the word Theme to your post. I really like the water colors brought out w/ the Simplify. I might mask back in some of the original underwings. I do wish the birds were not merging but it's still a lovely shot. Very nicely presented.

Very nice pose and effect, Bill. Pity about the merging, but you can't always get everything perfect. I might tone down the shoreline rocks a bit, just so they aren't quite as bright.

for me only.....I like original best. Coloration in first one is interesting but find the shoreline rock way
too strong and the huge cw rotation is too ootb for an nature image. In real life view, our eyes/mind
do level the scene, but not the camera.

Love the deep dark water in the first

Very interesting comments. Thank you. I agree about the merge and a need for darkening the shoreline. The most interesting is Dave's comment about the CW rotation. The large CW rotation of the BG was not due to the camera not being level, but shooting upsteam. In other words the shore was not perpendicular to the camera sensor. The wings of the left bird are more or less level with the horizon(slight CCW rotation). Just to see what would happen I rotated the image CCW to a "normal" landscape configuration, the birds really looked like they were falling to the left bottom corner! Sometimes you have to choose what to level, the background, or the subject.
Appreciate the observations as usual! regards~Bill

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Respectfully disagree with you Bill on the rotation......reflections don't cast at 11º angles.

But I do appreciate your response

Dave: you don't have to respectfully disagree. Just disagree. Anyway, good point. I wasn't looking at the reflections, just the orientation or angle of the shoreline. In any case that does change things. I noticed you over on a new forum for one of our favorite plug ins. regards~Bill

I like the warm light and effect you created. Even for OOTB the rotation is a little annoying to the eyes. (My old eyes anyway LOL)