Good Deed Rewarded...

[Arthur Morris]

I did something nice on Thanksgiving afternoon. It was raining when we left Socorro (Robert and I had gotten soaked that morning) but when I got to the refuge the skies were dramatic. As we headed north there were long skeins of geese above us but the sun angle was wrong. By the time we turned west the big flocks of birds were gone. But there were more behind them!

I created this image with the Canon 28-300mm IS L zoom lens handheld at 50mm with the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. 45-Point AFPS in AI Servo AF mode.

It is always rewarding to create an image that you have pre-visualized.

Don't be shy; all comment welcome.

[Fabs Forns]

Not your typical Bosque image, but beautiful and different. Love the dramatic skies and the neat formation.

[Juan Aragonés]

Outstanding birdscape Artie. The light and the clouds made for a dramatic BG and the geese flying in "V" shape are the ice on the cake. I love it!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Guys. There is something going on and I think that it has to do with Photoshop... My action is set to optimize the images to 199 kb and this one came out at 40kb (and does not look too good IMO...) I will try re-doing my action...

[John Chardine]

I see the jpeg artifacts around each bird Artie.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Very nice image,I Iike the light,mood and dramatic skies!!!

[Arthur Morris]

I see the jpeg artifacts around each bird Artie.

I agree. This JPEG looks lousy at 40kb.... The master file is spectacular....

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although I can see the jpeg artefacts here I can just imagine how spectacular this image is. The dramatic clouds, combined with blue skies peeking through is quite the backdrop for these geese formations. I also like that the sun was out to nicely illuminate the geese!

[Fabs Forns]

Maestro, it has something to do with the vBulletin upgrade downsizing files. Your action is fine.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The formation of the birds and the clouds make this special. It would be great to see a less compressed version.

[Piotr Shpakowski]

A powerfull image

[Arthur Morris]

Trying for a less compressed but more aggressively sharpened. In Photoshop, this shows up as 194 kb.... We shall see.

Does this version look less compressed? Overhsarpened?

I have learned one thing, when you reduce the size of an image like this that depends on fine detail of small birds it looks like **** when you zoom in on the JPEG.

ps: It uploaded at 194 kb and this version looks much, much better to me; sharper with less artifacting. If all agree, then the answer may be that my generic sharpening via action may not be best for images with fine detail....

[Rene' Villela]

Arthur... It is such a strong image! Really nice! Thanks!

[Bob Blanchard]

This is one of those "WOW" images. Absolutely stunning from my point of view. It give such a feel of enormity. Love it. Repost is MUCH better. Would love to see the original on this one.

I do see one little dust speck you missed in the lower right corner, but certainly not a nit....just don't want you to submit it somewhere without catching it ;-)