No way!

[Colin Driscoll]

The last in my Darter series, which gives an idea of the impossible task of swallowing this fish. Eventually the bird gave up.
1DXII 600mm F/4L III 1.4x III 840mm HH
1/2500 f10 iso800
Cropped, levels, S&H, removed some grey patches from the water, NR to BG, light sharpen PS2019

[Aditya Sridhar]

I like this series Colin. Great prey item and nice pose. Other than the harsh light, I feel like there's a bit too much negative space to the right in this picture. I wonder if you have chopped the bird off in the RAW because I find it slightly awkward to have 3/4 of the bird in the corner while there's so much room to the front. Might be worth a revisit.

Considering the harsh light, have you considered converting this image to B&W? I find it helpful when dealing with harsh light because it draws more attention to the lovely textures present here on the bird as well as the water.

[John Mack]

Pretty sweet frame. Love that big fish. I can see why it gave up. The ripples in the water are nice.

[gail bisson]

Very cool series- just having a problem with that harsh light.
Do you have more room on the left for the entire body? Crop feels awkward to me,
Gail

[Bill Dix]

A good example of a Lose-Lose situation. Light noted; ditto comments about crop. An interesting series; thanks for sharing.

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments. The entire body is so long that the fish would be up against the right hand side. These birds are so gangly it is difficult to get a balanced frame.

[Tim Foltz]

Colin, I know how hard it is to resist posting an image with questionable light especially when you want to show something unique that you captured.
I understand where you are coming from, great behavioral shot even though there is harsh light, I also question the odd crop.

Thanks for sharing.

-Tim

[Daniel Cadieux]

Harsh light and crop mentioned, but I love the water and its blues, and of course the intense action. Way!

[Dorian Anderson]

This is some great action, but - like the previous frame of this guys - the lighting is too harsh for my taste. I also second Krishna's crop comments.
The bird feels lost in the frame, and I wonder how a vertical might look instead. A lower shooting angle would have really helped as well.

[Paul Burdett]

Colin. Ditto the comments re crop/light, but still a great action shot. Getting lower would give you more reflection in the water. I'm fine with having mainly the neck of the bird in the image. The vertical crop could also work. Cheers.

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet image and action but the poor IQ is holding it back

[Arthur Morris]

I like it and would consider losing some of the specular highlights.

with love, artie

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions on this series, it's been a fabulous learning experience for me, particularly for PP. None of the raw images show harsh light, it was all down to me over-processing to try and bring more detail from a dark colored wet bird.