Over the past couple of days I've been lucky to see an immature Australasian Gannet at a local pier. Yesterday there were two, swimming/skimming and and diving continually for around an hour or so, and I took many shots at sunset with the sun behind me. I'm still editing those and will post soon. However, this shot was taken a few days before...hope you like it.
Paul, yes I do like it! Super focus and tones, I think the eye is fine, it may be tempting to brighten a bit more but I think it looks realistic as it is.
Hi Paul,
That's a very nicely captured action/behavioural shot. The bird looks very sharp, and I love the patterns on the wings. Great to catch one of these birds in a shallow dive like this. Will look forward to seeing some of the sunset shots,
Cheers, David
Looks to me Paul it would be hard to get this . I think you did a amazing job. I like it very much. I do think the waves probably take away from the image as the bird is entering the water and softens or should say it distracts from the bird. Nothing you could do about that.TFS
Yeah, this looks like a really hard shot to get; I now how fast these guys are in a dive. They're like darts! So, bravo on that front. Exposure and detail are killer. Waves a bit distracting since they're so close, but you can't control that. My DX2 would not have been able to focus to get this shot; it would have focused on the water instead. It need more separation! More room at left of frame would be good, if you have it.
Love everything about this but for the fact that the head is in the dark ... Why? Because the bird is angled slightly away from you and so is the head ...
with love, a
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Thanks everyone so much for the comments and feedback. Now...here's where I reveal a secret (or maybe I shouldn't, as no one has picked up on it): Here's the original image. In photoshop I tried moving the bird up in the frame, but couldn't get the water right after that. I finally decided, after trying a number of different ways in photoshop, to add the lower water section from another frame, and was 90% happy with the result. It certainly gave me a frustrating time trying to get it right, but I thought the frame was worth saving. I've taken another 1500 or so shots of the Gannets over the past few days and will post some soon...some dive shots that are positioned better in the frame...hope you don't get bored with them! Sometimes the 500PF is too close when it's impossible to back up (unless I fall off the pier!)...lol. Cheers.
P.S. Hey Artie...one for you do edit
Last edited by Paul Burdett; 04-13-2021 at 07:06 PM.
ps: filling in anything but still water is very tough ...
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Paul, fantastic job on the subject here. Processed beautifully and the darting pose is really cool!
Pretty decent on the cloning. Perhaps if you placed the cloned water on a new upper layer and then erased down at low opacity with a soft brush near the top of that section, you could help the transition a bit more.
Otherwise, I think the only critique is the dark water wake conceals the subject just a little bit.
FWIW, the bird doesn't appear to be flying away to me; rather the eye is just pointed away. Artie's the expert though ;-)
SumpScores, The bird's head might or might not be square to the sensor but with the angle of the head, the face is in the dark. Had the bird been angling more toward us the face would have been better lit. As is, it could still be brightened up.
with love, a
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Australasian Gannet dive
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