Long-billed Dowitcher at reflection pond

[David Salem]

Took this last weekend at my local wildlife refuge. This pond produces some nice reflections and I like the painterly quality the colors of this shot created. Hope you like it.

1DMkIV---700mm---f7.1---ss1/2500---ISO640---HH from car@ 8:15am---35% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

David

[Karl Egressy]

Nice preening pose, excellent feather details and great reflection, David. The water with the circular ripples and complimenting color looks good too.

[gail bisson]

Hi David,
I really like the preening pose and the reflection.
I would like a bit more room on the RHS.
The processing on this image seems a bit off. I can't say exactly what it is but the area at the top of the head that is against the water looks smudged as does the area around the feathers below the ones in the birds beak.
Maybe I am way off base here and will see what others say. My old eyes...?
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

I don't normally read other critiques before posting my own, but in this case I did, because I saw something "off " around the head but wasn't sure what. Whatever happened, it's worth the time to fix because it's a sweet pose and nice reflection.

[christopher galeski]

nice image David,but I must agree with Gail's comments.TFS.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I can see how the shot looks kinda different or off.
I think its the shot that makes it look different.. A friend and I shot together that morning and after hundreds of shots, he sent me the same frames as his faves and stated how weird and painterly they looked. I did remove some thing on the top of the head and may look a bit smudged. Here is the next frame processed the same way I normally do. What are your thoughts? I thought it looked unique.

Thanks in advance

David

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful shot with a spectacular reflection! I think the slightly odd look on the head might just be some DOF dropoff combined with an area of darker water just behind the head. Should be possible to touch it up -- better in the second shot with cleaner water texture there.

[David Salem]

I think you are right Diane. Thanks for the comment.

[Jonathan Ashton]

It is a lovely shot and a super pose, given the techs I have slight reservations, I am expecting a little more detail in the plumage - the legs and the bill look spot on but I sense something is missing???

[Richard Flack]

Awesome shot, nice pose and nice reflection. Agree with Gail in terms of the head. TFS

[David Salem]

Thanks again for the comments.
I do think it is the dof being a little limited. I was pretty close .
Looks like the body is a bit off compared to the head and legs.

Thanks

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, with the high speed frame rates of these top end camera's, both your frames look the same with regards to the preening pose. Great lookback preening pose, and what a lovely clear reflection. I normally go with vertical comps as you have to show off the reflection, but if you didnt shoot this vertically, I would have shown this in landscape so as to include the full circular ripples. Your repost does have a 'cleaner' look around the head.

[Satish Ranadive]

David,
Superb image with beautiful reflection.Rest is mentioned above. Re post image looks very nice.

Regards,
Satish.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments