Supper Time in Yellowstone

[Phil Ginn]

My wife and I have only been shooting for a little more than one year and still have a lot to learn. We have reached a point where we would like to take our images to the next level and need some feedback in order to do that. This image was taken during our spring trip through Yellowstone. The bird was fishing and after capturing several nice traditional images, we attempted to slow down our shutter speed to give the river water some blur but leave it fast enough to keep the bird sharp. It was a real challenge. It was shot with at 300mm, 1/13 second, f14. We would appreciate your thoughts on improvements.

[Harold Davis]

hi phil. big welcome to BPN and fantastic first post!!! love the blurred water and the placement of the bird in the frame looks perfect. if i was gonna do anything, i might lighten the eye area of the bird and desaturate the oranges in the bill. thanks for sharing!

[david cramer]

A beautiful image and your techique worked well. For composition, I feel the bird is too much in the corner.

[Mike Milicia]

Love it! Great idea and very cool effect!

You've already gotten some good feedback above.
I'd just add that I might like to see more room all around (love that blurred water BG),
but especially at the bottom to make room for the virtual feet.

[Ramon M. Casares]

More room at the bottom was going to be my suggestion, other than that, this is a great shot, I love the effect of the water, big congratulations!

[Chris Dodds]

Hi Phil,

I love the mood of this image. The flowing water makes this very peaceful. There have been a few good suggestions, but I would love more room on the bottom.

[Greg Basco]

Jo and Phil, I love this type of image, and I think you've done really well here. The combination of blurred water and sharp bird is great. I do agree with the others about having a wider composition. I would like to see a bit more room all around, which I think would improve what is already a very nice image.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Juan Aragonés]

Hi Phil and big welcome on board. Please, do not forget to include the technical details of the image because that information is really helpfull for other members who wants to criticize your work or just to learn more about photography. I like a lot the result of the slow shutter speed in this image, really nice. I wish for a little more room at the bottom for a more balanced composition and I suggest an additional work on the midtones to increase the brightness of the image. Very good job and keep them coming

[Jim Fenton]

Great image and personally I kind of like the bird and the framing just as it is.

More room IMHO would take away from accentuating the subject...less room and a higher bird framing would take away from the sense of location.

Had you been able to get a lower perspective and a more OOF background, then I would agree on a different framing.

[Raymond Barlow]

very creative image, and well done., I like it as is.

[Linda Robbins]

Welcome to BPN, and this is a lovely post. Using the slow shutter speed resulted in that amazingly beautiful water. Nice pose and head position and the composition works well for me as presented as I suspect that the shoreline was just below where the bird was standing. If this image were mine, I would probably lighten the eye area a bit. Looking forward to seeing more of your images.

[Phil Ginn]

Thanks for everyone's feedback and encouragement. It is really helpful and we have already corrected some of the issues.