Eared Grebe Winter Plumage

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I made this image in Antelope Island State Park.

I found a spot in Antelope Island State Park which involves getting there very early morning and laying on the rocks for 30-40 mins. This was shot on the second day. First day I was there with D8500 and 600 f/4 lens.
This grebe came so close to me that I could focus with big lens. Next morning I took two lenses, 300 f/4 on D500 and kept it on the ground
When the grebe came close, I picked up this lens and make this image. I should have stopped down to f/8

Camera Settings:-
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Nikon D500 300 f/4
1/5000s f/4.0 ISO640
Manual; Matrix metering




Post Processing:-
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Raw Processing using C1P 20
Slight Crop for Leveling
Tonal Adjustments in Viveza
Neat Image NR
Sharpening for Presentation
Dodge selectively
Cloned few spot on the bird and background




Let me know your thoughts and comments.


Thanks
Krishna

[David Roach]

Those eye, that stare... SH right on the eyes... Love the low angle and well worth the wait. Only wish you weren't so close, or as you stated, stopped down more. Only the OOF rear flank/hip bothers me at all. Still, a wonderfully creamy BG. Love the forehead water drops. TFS

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Ni HA and that stare is great. Love the red eyes and the water drops. Agree with more DOF.

[Aditya Sridhar]

Excellent sharpness and eye contact. The symmetry is really eye-catching (pardon the pun). Colors looks good. Well done on getting low. In this case, I actually like how the body falls out of the DOF. Yeah a nice, sharp beak would be nice, but it doesn't bother me in this case. Well done, Krishna

[John Mack]

Love the head on view and those red eyes are great as well. Nice low angle. Detail is another plus.

[William Dickson]

Nice looking frame..The eyes sure give it the wow factor. Good POV... f/8 would have made so much difference.

Well done

Will