Purple Sandpiper! - Caution, this one comes from left field

[Brandon Holden]

1DM2n, 600mm... Full Frame


Another bird thats pretty uncommon in my area. The few i've photographed close to home have been great subjects - and this fella was no different! About 400 images before the sun set. It was actually a really nice sunny day, but this bird spent all its time in the shade.

I took several "styles" of photos of this bird, and have been asking which "style" is their favourite. Since I can't post multiple photo's here, I decided to post the one that gets the most love or hate reactions from people, and ask you, if you like this one or not?

Happy Shooting!

Brandon

[Alfred Forns]

I like what you are trying to do here Brandon It does have a special feel and its very different Can work for me, I think a slight more room by the tail and a bit more contrast on the bird would enhance.

Personally would have gone with a horizontal which would still have incredible feel !!! Your will make one interesting print !!!!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Wonderful mood you captured in this image and I love the great eye contact and surrounding detail that just deems to fade away. Would love to see this image in a large print. Very striking Brandon. I like it a lot !!!

[Raymond Barlow]

this is really cool Brandon, a very artistic feel to it., if I was doing a book, this is the one., if it were going one the wall., the one I liked earlier would suite a 16x20 for sure., well done on all three.

[bill kominsky]

Great mood on this image as well as excellent feel, agree with all the above and love, great job and thank you for sharing.

Bill

[Juan Aragonés]

I like your idea a lot Brandon and agree with Al about the need for more room at the right. Very nice and artistic print for sure. Superb!

[Jim Fenton]

It's strange / different and I like it, BUT...I'm left wondering what exactly the foreground is as it doesn't appear to be OOF and it almost looks as though there is something OOF in front of the subject as well?

Also, to my eyes, there appears to be too much gray dead space below the subject.

Definitely interesting.

[Ramon M. Casares]

A bit more room to the right and for what it worth, it does work for me! Congratulaitons!

[Taylor Yeager]

Very interesting. It would not do much for me as a print, but would make awesome stationary.

[Dan Brown]

Very creative here! I can visualize this as a magazine cover with lots of room for text on top and bottom. Love it Brandon:D

[Sabyasachi Patra]

nice feel to the image. Creative. Would have been better with some space near the tail. I would have preferred a horizontal one.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Arthur Morris]

I like it but think that if you had been maybe an inch higher the bird would have been rendered a bit sharper...

Here is an alternative re-post that is even further out of the box... (Added canvas below and right, increased contrast and lightened the bird via a QM).

ps: The o-o-f rocks rock!

[Brandon Holden]

I like it but think that if you had been maybe an inch higher the bird would have been rendered a bit sharper...

Here is an alternative re-post that is even further out of the box... (Added canvas below and right, increased contrast and lightened the bird via a QM).

ps: The o-o-f rocks rock!

Thanks for the comments and re-post Arthur! When seeing the shot at home, I too thought I could have been a touch higher - but wanted to keep very low in order to try to eliminate as much of the beach near the bird (and its feet) that would be in focus. I've had a few people ask me what the gray fog is below the bird. It's just a small hill of dull gray Hamilton, Ontario sand that is much closer to me than the subject, causing it to be really OOF.

I like the re-post in most aspects. I was playing around with the contrast when editing the image. I found that increasing it would make the birds back too dark for my tastes, which is why I ended up going with a duller less-contrasting gray (a dull dark mood). When you lightened the bird alone, it fixed the problem!

I will probably add more canvas to the right side on my final version (after hearing everyones comments) - but I had mixed feelings about adding too much. I also really like the OOF rocks, but there aren't any on the right side of the bird. Adding some plain gray to the right side makes me feel like the image is less balanced than before.

Not saying anything is bad! - Just thinking, learning and discussing!

Thanks very much for the comments!

Brandon

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love the repost! Great shot!

[Arthur Morris]

Brandon, YAW. You definitely need to add some canvas to the right because as is it is an image killer. And I did not add very much... IMO, there is not need to have any rocks to the right of the bird...