I hope everyone is doing well! I'm happy to have found this forum -- tons of extremely inspiring work here and I look forward to learning a ton.
This was taken in Sanibel, Florida last week. These Anhingas will dive into the water, then perch themselves on a rock to preen and dry before taking off again. The background is the ocean.
Self critique: I keep coming back to this image during the editing process as I'm not completely sold on this image yet. Part of me is okay with just the silver of eye, part of me wishes I had a frame with the whole eye. I also wish I had been able to avoid the trace of reed blocking the neck. Additionally if I were to shoot this again I would go to f/14 or f/16 for more DOF. I feel the high key look works here, but understand it isn't for everyone.
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6 at 500mm
Specs: 1/800 ISO 3200 f/9 with EC 1.3
Lightroom: Small crop, warmed the image a bit, tonal adjustments, sharpened, some noise reduction, and increased the exposure and whites on the eye sliver.
Thank you for looking and I'm excited to join this great community,
Alex
Welcome. I like this shot and agree with your self critique. Probably would have been better with more of the eye showing but this is a very different look at an Anhinga. It works for me. Image quality is pretty good for such a high ISO. Nice shot and looking forward to more.
Preening Anhinga
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