Wilson's Phalaropes

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/1000 sec f/6.3 ISO 800


Small crop for composition, levels in CS6
Sharpening in NIK Sharpener (experimenting with NIK software)
NR in Dfine 2.0

[Clyde Hopper]

Hi Ian . Beautiful interaction ,I do find the twig a distraction though . BTW , I've been a fan of your work for several years now ,Keep up the good work !

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Clyde. Thanks for the comment about the twig. I tried it with and without because I wondered about it at first too. When I removed it, however, I lost some of the feel for the natural environment and made the water behind the birds look 'blah'. I thought the triangle formed by the two birds and the twig was sort of appealing, but now I'm not sure again. I wonder what others think. The twigs behind the bird on the viewer's right were more problematic. Although I think it would be better without them, I found them tough to remove because of their reflections.

[Randall Farhy]

Ian, for this image, the twig helps- it becomes an oof object to offset the foreground bird being oof, thus drawing attention to the bird in focus. I think that if you remove it, the foreground bird being soft will become a distraction.

[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, I have to disagree with you and the twig fans. While the twig makes a nice triangle I find it totally distracting. My eye goes there and stays there because it is the tip of the triangle and right in the center of the frame. The lighting was very flat here and as a result there is no color to speak of. I am interested in the reflections that can be seen just in front of the right bird's legs. Is there a third bird hiding back there. What are these reflections? I believe the image needs a slight CCW rotation.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks folks. Kerry, I see what you mean, but I tried it without the twig and found it lacking. Maybe it's just lacking, period :) The reflections by the RH bird, if I remember correctly, were just a couple of twigs behind him. I tried cloning them out, but messed things up worse.

[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, it's not so bad! I just find that my eye is drawn to the top of the frame with the twig there.