This is one from the weekend at the local harbour. The male Eiders have started to return to the harbour for the breeding season ahead, and their plumage is looking good. The back end of last year I had surgery on my shoulder and my doctor ordered me not to hand hold the lens for 4 months. My house looks over the harbour and when I seen these males return there was nothing going to stop me....So, for this one I managed to set up my tripod in amongst some rocks(the lowest point I could get) and sat on a rock behind it. I was waiting for the tide to come in, and prayed that some eiders would pass by when it was near enough to high tide, by this time the tripod was well submerged, at high tide I would have had to abort. I got lucky as a few did swim past.
A beauty of a shot, Will. Well executed in nice light, under tricky circumstances. I'm glad your shoulder is healing. It's now been 7 months since my surgery and I'm finally back in the field, but there were lots of frustrating times when I missed the action because the doctor told me not to pick up anything heavier than a coffee cup. Hang in there.
I need to make a trip to get these birds at eye level in nice light. Never seem to be able to do that around me. I see tons of them but never at the right level. Details look nice but the whole image is a bit dark for me and the blacks, especially on the upper flanks and top of the head have very little details. Worth going back and seeing if you can get some more out of them to even out the rest of the fine details you have. I have found that with birds like this (or long-tailed ducks) that I try and lift the blacks a bit too much when working on the raw and then in PS I will use detail extractor to get a bit more detail out of them and then if they are a bit too bright I will add a few points of black in selective color or do a curves adjustment or something to get them just right.
Good on getting better. The harsh light here caused many of the problems noted above.
with love, artie
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Eider
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