Mature Roseate Spoonbill - Take 2

[Bob Blanchard]

I wanted to post one more from yesterday's Spoonbill series. I kept 5 out of the series which were similar in quality and genre (but with different angles, etc.) to the one I posted yesterday. In reviewing the remaining flagged images in Lightroom, this one caught my eye. I like the way his eye makes contact, and that almost playful splash. Might have to move this one to the keeper file, altough I think the one I posted yesterday is a better image. What do you think?

Canon 1DsMII, 600mm f/4L, f/4, ISO 200, 1/3200, 0 EV, off tripod at gound level. At Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge shortly after opening.

[Harold Davis]

bob, i havent seen the first one you posted, but if it's better than this one it must be a show stopper!! love the compo here the bird looks great. lots of great things happening here. congrats on a keeper!

[Ramon M. Casares]

Looks outstanding as the first one you've shared with us, are you plannig on not keeping this one?? Correct me if I am wrong... I think this is a keeper for sure! Congratulaitons!

[Raymond Barlow]

another great shot Bob., I like this one a lot, great look and pose., but the first on would be on my wall if it were mine... large!

[Maxis Gamez]

This is a big delete for me Bob....................... :)

Joking man.... Love them both and I agree with you about the eye contact.

Keep up the good work!

[Tony Whitehead]

I can see why you like this, Bob. I prefer the first but would definitely keep this too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I'm glad you kept and shared the image. I really like the pose, light, details and angle.

[Bob Blanchard]

It's always hard to decide what gets moved forward, and what stays unprocessed. What I basically do is go through all the images quickly in Lightroom, flagging them as either "flagged" or "rejected". My only real criteria on the initial pass is focus, exposure, and basic composition. I never look at an image more than a second or two on the initial pass. I then sit down and go through the "flagged" images more thoroughly. I assign them ratings based on their impact to me. Very seldom do I have more than 10 "5 star" ratings out of a day of shooting. Those 5 star images obviously get processed. It's all those images that are not in the "5 star" category to me are where the gems sometimes hide. I usually have my wife give them a look, and she may pick out a couple more that have impact to her. That's where this one came from.

FWIW - One of my best selling images came from my delete bin! My wife took one look at it, and loved it. It was a butterfly that was partially OOF (in flight), but the image had great "feel". I had judged it solely on it's technical merits, and not on it's artistic ones.

I don't delete the "unprocessed" files that were given the "flagged" status in Lightroom. I keep them and look through them when I have down time. You never know where a good image is hiding, or if you just plain missed one.

[Fernando Cerra]

This image is fantastic, I like it better than the first one in a heart beat. In this forum there is too much emphasis on the technical side, which is not bad since it keeps you in perspective.

[Nikolay Staykov - shotlandetsa]

One more fantastic image of this series :)