American Dipper

[Gail Spitler]

Today was a day to fulfill my challenge of getting a few dipper images. Dippers were almost becoming yet another nemesis species for me. They have a wonderful song and bob up and down as they feed along lake edges and in mtn streams (all year round!) in the west. This bird was feeding along the lake edge and had just pulled the larva from the bottom.
Tweaks in LR2 and sharpening in PS CS3
C&C's much appreciated
Thanks for looking
Gail
Canon 40D with 100-400mm lens at 400mm, 1/1600 sec at f/5.6, eval (pattern) metering with +1 comp, ISO 640

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Gail,
A very sweet image indeed, I like the pano crop, which places all of the attention and focus on your subject. The blue background compliments your bird well, bringing out his colors even more. You have sharp details with good color rendition, a good head angle and a good sharp eye contact. I like the action captured...well done Gail, I like it...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

HI Gail - love the action and the water drops, good HA and eye contact.

On my screen it is looking a tad bright and a little washed out - some adjustments to your levels would probably fix this. The crop as it is doesnt quite work for me - too much space at the top I think (Yeh I know lots of water drops up there) or some more space at the bottom maybe.

P.S My screen does need to be recalibrated - could just be my screen - will be intresting to see if anyone else mentions it - if nothing else it will tell me how far out my screen is :)

A lower shooting angle would possibly have been wet ;) but would have been worth it :)

[Alfred Forns]

Not that bad Lance Check the calibration boxes? Do think its a little over sharpened !!! Do like it a lot and not your nemesis bird any more :)

[Lance Peters]

Al my calibration boxes look good - I obviously need to get my spyder from work and run a calibration.

GAIL - disregard my rambligs about being too bright - must be my screen - Sorry

[Alfred Forns]

Lance the light is bright on that bird and I think thats what is causing the problem. They look strange when you tone them down since its mostly reflective !!!

[denise ippolito]

Gail, Nice Shot! Great action captured here, very big congrats!!!

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I was happy that I could get some action into the image, otherwise you have a drab bird in water - not too exciting unless the water is moving.
I think Lance is right - the colors aren't quite right. The gray is usually more to the charcoal gray side, and the brown may indeed be too bright. I have started to try to improve this and Al is right that it doesn't correct easily (at all???) and goes strange quickly.
Thanks very much for your comments - they are really helpful.
Cheers
Gail