Horned Grebe

[Geoffrey Montagu]

We've had this little visitor for the past two weeks on a local lake. It was close to 7:00pm and the light was fading fast. The Grebe was not very shy. For that matter a fisherman was casting his line very near, and the Grebe was not deterred . All C&C welcome.

D3s, Nikon 500mm+1.4TC, 1/400, f5.6, ISO 1600, Gitzo series 5 tripod, Wimberley Gimbal Head.



Geoffrey

[Grant Yang]

I love the patterns in the water. Unfortunately I think the focus might be slightly off or perhaps a bit of motion blur since the grebe doesn't appear perfectly sharp. I also think the crop is a bit awkward since you've left very little space below the bird, which is the direction he's looking.

[dennis greenwood]

Hi Jeff, with Grant on this ,just a a tad motion blur on the head ,and the bird is to central still a good subject

[Aidan Briggs]

Love the muted tones and the water patterns. Looks like you might have applied noise reduction to the bird? Detail just isn't really there. I would give it a little bump of contrast with curves.

Keep them comin!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

ISO 1600 is just another day in the office for the D3S. So, great call on pushing the ISO.
May be this diver is pretty wet, contributing to the perceived softness.
Love the water and the head turn. Cute bird too. Overall the image appears a bit cool/blue to my tired eyes.
I added a bit of contrast, warmed up the image a tad and added a touch of sharpening.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

ISO 1600 is just another day in the office for the D3S. So, great call on pushing the ISO.
May be this diver is pretty wet, contributing to the perceived softness.
Love the water and the head turn. Cute bird too. Overall the image appears a bit cool/blue to my tired eyes.
I added a bit of contrast, warmed up the image a tad and added a touch of sharpening.

Your eyes are not so tired, and nice work. I had contemplated raising the shutter speed, and ISO. Yes this diver was quite wet having just come up from many dives, but it's possible, as Grant and Dennis mentioned, there may be the slightest bit of motion blur.

Thank you also Aidan for your observation. I did use a slight bit of noise reduction on the bird.


Geoffrey

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Geoffrey, you have captured a great HA, and just love that red eye. I like the repetative ripples infront of the grebe, together with the texture of the water in the BG. I like Sid's repost.

[Bill Dix]

Repost makes a big difference. Comp works just fine for me, and I love the swirls and ripples in the water.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks very much, Stuart and Bill.




Geoffrey