Nice exposure. I love the two-toned BG. I wish the nearer bird was looking towards you though. I would also give it more space all around, and selectively sharpen the heads a little bit more.
I've read about that island before. How are the photography opportunities around there?
Neat looking birds, I like the little bit of yellow on the rock and the background is very nice. I think a touch of linear burn on the bird's upper breasts would make this even better, I would also loosen the crop.
Last edited by Caroline Darmo; 06-22-2009 at 10:18 PM.
Thanks folks. This was cropped to a square from a horizontal so I do have room front and back if I want to add it. I knew it was going to be a little tight as a square but I just liked that comp a little better. I will have to do a bit of cloning if I put back some of the front space.
Head angle can be tough enough with one bird. Getting two at the same instance... well they weren't being that cooperative.
Regarding Machias Seal Island: You can't stay on the island so you are dependent on the daily (or close to it) boat trips out to island. The boat usually leaves Cutler around 0700 and gets out to the island around 0800 or 0830. (Sunrise is a 0445 this time of year.) So you miss the best, early morning light. And you must stay in whichever of the four blinds you have been assigned to. So lighting may not be perfect. I had sidelight. Thankfully there was some cloud cover that helped at times.
With that said, the Puffins, Razorbills and Murres are right on top of you. You can easily get away with a 100-400 zoom. I had a 300mm and often the birds were too close for a full body image.
what a spectacular pose this is and the capture as well.
just curious to see what it looks after running tonal contrast (NIK cool efex)
and this is the difference. Not sure if this is good or not to the original but it added some extra details.
Very nice capture getting two in the frame, Ed, and also good to get the eyes showing, a difficult thing in them.
Tightness has been mentioned. if it's a horizontal, you can also add some canvas to the blue sky on top to give them room to breathe.
really awesome exposure/pp....the repost shows nice detail but hurts the delicate
soft texture of the razors IMO. The softly saturated blue/gray bg is super here
as the split color helps to ground them to the rock
Frick and Frack
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