This one is from Barrow, Alaska in 2014. Like everybody on BPN, I am going through old files hoping to find some missed gems.
These eiders are simply stunningly beautiful. We saw 3 males and 2 females swimming in a small ice pond. We slowly crawled into the pond (waders on) and waited for them to drift in towards us. Within 15 minutes we had all the eiders coming in closer to investigate.
Definitely one of the highlights of my bird photography adventures. This image was shot around midnight, June 23 so almost 24 hour daylight.
I am booked to go this June but it is not looking good that I will get there.
Canon 1 DX 600mm and 1.4 x
ISO 800 SS 1/800 f 7.1
About 65% FF. Cloned out 1 grass in LLC.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
I see a slight purple hue in the water. I have tried using grey point and black point and white point and keep getting this color balance. Then tried hue/saturation/luminance sliders of blue and purple color and still this slight cast.
This was shot so long ago that I no longer recall if the midnight light (it was hazy high cloud) gives this color. Thoughts?
Last edited by gail bisson; 04-11-2020 at 10:31 AM.
Maybe the slight purple hue is there in reality, but you haven't noticed it. Watching mainly the bird?? Sometimes (lately) I'll take a close look at these kind of circumstances and then you notice that it is actually there. Maybe it does not suite our expectations!!
At least, it is not destracting for me. Love the bird, great colours. Nice view from the front.
Wonderful shot of this handsome beast, with perfect turn of the head. Great (but frigid?) POV. This was high on my wish list for my Svalbard trip, but never saw one close enough to photograph.
A repost to adress the purple hue, better or worse? I get what you were concerned with when tweaking a bit with it in PS. In the end of the day I think only you can decide what most resembles the real situation. I tried to tweak from the basis of the colors of the bird that I'm familiar with how they should look like. On the image as a whole I like it, especially with the backstory together with it. The color of the water match that of the grey on the head of the bird so well that they blend together a little which I like. Nice pose as it is something different from the usual parallell to the camera classic. Nice details and light too!
Last edited by Ivan Sjogren; 04-11-2020 at 03:38 PM.