Days End

[Bill McCrystyn]

Created with a Canon EOS 20D / 100-400L IS @ ISO 400 EFL 640mm f/9 1/400 partial AWB. This guy came skimming across the water just as the sun was going down and struck this pose as he kept one wary eye on me. I noticed he was missing one toe. Apparently something bit back. It's a jungle out there. :) Please critique. Thank you.

[Lana Hays]

Bill
A nice pose....and interesting when you can capture a bit of the harshness in nature. For composition, I would move the bird more to the right....to get him out of the center and more room to "look into". The image also appears very soft......perhaps due to a large crop, use of the teleconverter, and/or lack of sharpening.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Thank you Lana for your critiques. Actually you would by default be correct on positioning but sometimes in the art world you "break the rule". This is one such instance. The vase like figure of the bird with plumage headed one way and beak the other gave balance to center and so I purposely positioned him there for effect. "Birds as Art", eh. Here on my monitor the image appears tight and clean. I cropped at 12x18 (100%) so that souldn't be a problem and tried not to make the bird harsh by over sharpening with respect to the overall impression I wanted with the image. I don't use a TCX as you can see by my technicals so, maybe it's just an artistic expression you don't care for. I did visit your site and you have some lovely images there, all tack sharp indeed. Thanks, Bill

[Lana Hays]

Bill
When I saw EFL 640mm I rather passed over the "EFL" and just thought that you had used a TC.....oops.

[JH Tugs]

Bill,

On my machine, the image also looks soft. This may just be the resizing / JPEG restrictions causing it. Positionally, I quite like the centered position - the symmetry of the single leg works well with this in my opinion, even though it's not "conventional".

(I checked out the version on your photo.net site to see if that version was crisper by way of comparison, but - perhaps intentionally - the quality is lower than the image you posted here).

[Bill McCrystyn]

As correctly pointed out to me a moment ago by John Crookes (BPN#81) this shot and "The Ninja" I posted in Wild Forum should both have been posted in "out of the box". The correct forum for shots that are not tack sharp and rather, try to show artistic expression "outside the rules of convention." While this shot is tight and clean it is a long way from tack sharp as Lana pointed out. It was intentionally left that way to go with the mood of the image. The original name for this shot was Backyard Blues. I apologize for confusing everyone by placing these images where they should not have been and expecting critique and plaudits that could not be given. I will try harder in the future to get it right. After all, the harder I try, the luckier I get. :)

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Bill,

I agree with Lana's comments particularly about the comp. I'm all for breaking the rules, but it doesn't work for me this time.

My guess would be that the missing toe is due to fishing line. I often see birds that have lost toes, feet, legs, or their lives to fishing line.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Thanks for commenting Jim. I look forward to your site construction getting done so I can see what you have to offer as far as instruction. Enviromental pollution is something I'm sure we here all agree on. I will post a single photographic commentary on it in Landscape later today.

[Jim Neiger]

Thanks for commenting Jim. I look forward to your site construction getting done so I can see what you have to offer as far as instruction. Enviromental pollution is something I'm sure we here all agree on. I will post a single photographic commentary on it in Landscape later today.

Bill,

My website is available. You can access it by clicking on the links in my signature lines.