American Coot

[Ryan Hooper]

First Post. I shoot with Dan fairly regular and he keeps telling me if i want to up my game i need to start posting here so here it goes. Don't hold back.

This particular day i found a spot where some coots were hanging out so i got down on my belly and waited for them to get close. which they did. This is a very minimal crop to straighten the horizon a bit. I did remove a small white line out of the background that was a little distracting. Other than that the processing was minimal. Looking forward to any comments and critiques you might have

Nikon d7200
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
600 mm
ISO 280
F6.3
1/320

Thanks
Ryan

[Jonathan Ashton]

Welcome Ryan and you have made a good start. The image has an ethereal look to it - very appealing, the colour palette is beautiful. Sharpening and detail looks good, noise pretty much non existent.
Purely a matter for consideration, the plumage has quite a strong blue element, I am sure there will be blue there......you will know better than me was it really so blue? Secondly if you lower luminosity on the bill you will get more detail.

[Randy Stout]

Ryan:

You couldn't have a better teacher than Daniel!

Very nice first post. Good shooting angle, soft light, great eye and eye contact.

I think the blue tint in areas is normal for this bird, as other areas of feathers are quite neutral re: color balance. Coot bills can be a real exposure challenge, very easy to blow them out, but you did well there. I do agree with Jon that you might be able to tease just a bit more texture out of it, but I would be careful not to make it too dull or gray.

Bubbles in a shot like this are always interesting in regards to leave in or remove. It is a balance of possibly adding some interest vs. being distracting. When in doubt, I will do a version both ways, and see what looks best. Here, I might be tempted to remove the little ones, and just leave the single large one, as an additional point of interest in the frame, since the bird is of modest size in this image.

Look forward to more. Hope you like to wash your clothes a lot, as Daniel tends to crawl around on his belly like a reptile at times!

Cheers

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Ryan, welcome to BPN. I think your first image is lovely, the soft light in wonderful. I can see your a disciple of Daniel's laying on the ground to get the shot (ohhh to be young and flexible again). Thank you for sharing.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Ryan, welcome to BPN, a solid shot to begin with. Great low angle and clean BG and surroundings. Exposure looks good and so are the details. I like the HA and the water drops on the back.

[Ryan Hooper]

Looks like maybe there are two different Dan’s. Dan Kearl is the one I shoot with frequently.

Ryan

[Randy Stout]

Looks like maybe there are two different Dan’s. Dan Kearl is the one I shoot with frequently.

Ryan

Well, then perhaps your clothes are safe. I thought you meant Daniel Cadieux.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice Image. Welcome to the Forum

I love the eye nice and sharp. adding curves layer to increase contrast to the image might help.

TFS

[John Mack]

Nice low angle with nice framing. Detail on the bird is very nice. Love the Sigma 150-600. Hope to see some more.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Ryan, welcome to BPN!! Awesome first post. Nice details, beautiful blacks, perfect head angle. I love the drops on the back. The bubbles are a neat touch as well. If anything I'd say don;t be afraid to raise the ISO for more shutter speed for unexpected action or movements. Looking forward to more!