Weather Luck Ran Out...

[Arthur Morris]

After three weeks of just about perfect weather (mostly cloudy bright) on the Wild Britain cruise and the Bonaventure trip it started pouring on our last morning at the gannetry off of Perce. The birds are there for the touching so I thought of creating a flash as main light image of the rain drops on a nice bird. Flash as main light involves setting an ambient exposure that would yeild a basically black image if the flash did not fire, in other words, the flash supplies ALL of the illumination.

Canon 400mm IS DO lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS1-D MIII on the Mongoose M3.5. ISO 200: 1/250 sec. at f/20. Manual flash as main light probably at 1:1.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Wow, this is amazing! Great composition, light and the droplets make the gannet's plumage look almost glass-like.

[Stephen Stephen]

Just beautiful Artie. Axel's pretty well said it all but I like how the Gannet has it's eye on you as well.

[Juan Aragonés]

The thumbnail do not made justice to this image, an excellent exercise of composition. The eye and the water drops are too good to be true and the whites are nailed. I will not say that this is the best image of gannet I have ever seen but I think that this is the image that I like most between the myriad of excellent images that you have. I suggest to increase the saturation of the blue orbital ring and the golden crown but just a little bit, and another round of selective sharpening on the cristal clear water drops on the golden area and near the bird (just my taste). Of course, with this composition, this image is fantastic for the cover of a book about gannets... a coffe table size book, of course.:)

[Grady Weed]

Art, the original is super. Juan's re-do is fantastic. You made out!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Juan and all. Well done on the re-post.

[Dan Brown]

Beautiful Art! It looks like a melting ice sculpture to me! Dan Brown

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Definitely a work of art Artie. Just amazes the beauty that can be captured in spite of the weather conditions. Thanks for the tips Artie.

[Raul Quinones]

Awesome picture, I have to agree with Judy, most will not even bother to shoot on bad conditions.
Love the original, and nice repost by Juan.

[Steve Wheeler]

Incredible image Mr. Morris... No surprises there. I love these types of close ups. The water droplets seem to glow. I like the the repost as well.

Thanks for explaining your thought process in creating this (and all) your images Artie.

Steve

[Steve Canuel]

Very cool. It does look like glass. I also like the look of the eye. It reminds me of looking into one of those crystal blue geyser springs at Yellowstone.
Steve

[John Chardine]

This is great Artie, very impressive. The lighting is really spot-on and makes the water droplets glow. I've been trying to figure out what the image would have looked like with more balanced background and flash light.

[Leroy Laverman]

Very lovely. The extra saturation in the repost adds to this one I think. Just out of curiosity where was your flash relative to the lens? I'm thinking there should be a reflection in the eye but it's not there. I played around with adding a fake catchlight in PS but it looks better without it.

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Breathtaking image, the waterdrops are what makes this very 'arty' Artie!

[Arthur Morris]

Very lovely. The extra saturation in the repost adds to this one I think. Just out of curiosity where was your flash relative to the lens? I'm thinking there should be a reflection in the eye but it's not there. I played around with adding a fake catchlight in PS but it looks better without it.

The flash was mounted on the Mongoose flash bracket and there was no catchlight in the original capture (unless you consider the tiny catchlight at the forward part of the eye ring as a catch light. Possible reason: the birds head was angled slightly away from me.

I did do a big clean-up job on the dirty bill which would preclude entering the image as presented here in the BBC and other contests.

[Brutus Ostling]

As usual, you are certainly a master of composition, and especially when it comes to close ups.

And you have learnt me to at least think of getting as close as possible, when the conditions may not be good for other photos.

I am going to Scotlad and Edinburgh to have a lecture this week, and I have got a special permision to land on Bass Rock, but just for a few hours. Well, I hope I'll get at least a few photos og the Gannets. The place in Canada seems to be a very good spot. - Are they gonna close that too?

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

I love gannets and this has to be one of the finest close up shots of one I have seen. The increased saturation helped. It feels as though it is saying "you are close enough".

[David Hemmings]

A wonderful and one of a kind piece of photographic art. I cant think of a thing that I could say to improve this unique image:cool:

[Brian Wong]

Hi Artie!

I almost missed this one ... this one is very special! I love the water drops and it almost looks like flowing water, and very icy!! This is a composition to study! I like it a lot and has a great mood with the eye looking right you!

[William Nguyen-Phuoc]

Absolutely superb image Artie, the re-work is better imo - just makes it pop a little more. I like the use of the flash as main light, very creative!

[Diane Chenault]

I love this image.