Been Away...

[Arthur Morris]

I was in Alaska leading a group photographing coastal Brown Bears for a week and then headed to Bosque to lead the volunteer group who worked extraordinarily hard. Our efforts were quite productive; we opened up about eight large viewing windows. Read the whole story and see all the images in next week's Bulletin.

Being at Bosque in mid-Sepember was new for me and while there were not many birds around there were about four quadrillion sunflowers in full bloom and lots of other great stuff.

This Clarke's Grebe was photographed from the Marsh Loop boardwalk in early morning. (We photographed each morning from about 6am till 8:45 am.

Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with the 2X II TC and the Canon EOS-1d Mark III on the 3530 LS tripod topped with a Mongoose M3.5. ISO 400. Evaluative Metering at zero: 1/250 sec. at f/11.

All comments welcome; don't be shy.

ps: Sorry to have been off-line so long.

[Linda Robbins]

Gorgeous subject an beautiful BG. Perfect exposure, pose and head angle. I think it could use a small CW rotation. You and your work party all should be commended for volunteering to make Bosque better for both photographers and birdwatchers this year. Your hard work will benefit us all.

[Grace Scalzo]

Lovely bird and shimmering water. A question on Linda's suggestion of a cw rotation. I agree that is looks like it needs it, yet the head if perfectly vertical. Was he swimming ever so slightly away from you? I've had a few images with this feeling, and wasn't sure how to resolve. Sounds like alot of work at Bosque, and I see you've got the big guns out again, feeling better?

[Robert O'Toole]

Hi Artie,


Beautiful. I like it as is but since Linda mentioned it I would go along with the slight rotation. Love the water and the reflections.

Thanks for the update and the notes.

Robert

[Doug Brown]

Enjoyed getting to know you a little better down at the Bosque Artie! Like your Grebe a lot. It's true that the photographic opportunities were infrequent, but some were quite special!

[Bill McCrystyn]

CW rotation??? Thanks Juan - I missed that. :o

[Juan Aragonés]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the trip Artie. Can´t wait for the next bulletin! I agree with Linda that some CW rotation would improve the vertical reflections in the BG but it seems that the grebe doesn´t needs CW rotation (I did it in PS and I think it works). I like the subject a lot, fantastic eye and very elegant bird. You did well with the reds in the eye and the exposure is right. I only wish for a lower angle

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely bird and shimmering water. A question on Linda's suggestion of a cw rotation. I agree that is looks like it needs it, yet the head if perfectly vertical. Was he swimming ever so slightly away from you? I've had a few images with this feeling, and wasn't sure how to resolve. Sounds like alot of work at Bosque, and I see you've got the big guns out again, feeling better?

Good question Grace. The bird was swimming ever-so-slightly away from me. I played connect the pupils with the ruler tool and was as precise as possible; most will be amazed that it was suggested that the image needed a .3 degree CCW (!) rotation... So yes, they can be both tricky and can create somewhat of an optical illusion (or an optical collusion if you would...)

And yes, the shoulder and the elbow are feeling better. I am being much more careful when carrying my gear to reduce the stress.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi Arthur, glad you're back! I think that the reflection are the ones to blame for the fell of need of CW rotation as the are not perfectly vertical, but other than that, I love the light and colours, exp looks great too! Congratulaitons!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the reflection,eye contact and details!