Golden opportunity to explore.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although I got many closer opprotunities, I rather like the mood of this more "distant" image. These young ones are two of a group of six that hang out together. Some are more adventurous than others and like to explore the open waters. Full-frame lenght-wise, but cropped top and bottom as a pano. A bit of debris was removed from the water via the patch tool. The apparant "halos" above the heads are there on the RAW file and looks like it may be light shining on lighter feathers.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/320s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +0.7 EC, natural light, handheld.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

I agree, the feel of this image is nice. The lovely water colors helps, the ripples are nice.
Well exposed, nice comp.

I tried a trial crop down a bit more from the top, but prefer your original, I think the darker green adds to the image.

Cheers

Randy

[Brian Barcelos]

Daniel, I too like the mood here and your pano style crop. The greens and yellows really make this stand out IMO. I think the birds could use a little more sharpening though. Congrats.

Brian

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Daniel,
I love the colours and the mood of this. Crop works fine for me!
Best,
Nicki

[Ramon M. Casares]

I like the comp and mood, nice light, detail, colors, BG and species, if anything I would give the subject a tad more sharpening.
Congratulations!

[Austin Thomas]

Hi Daniel,

A nice composition and feel to thi image. I agree a bot more sharpening on the subject would help.

Best regards,

Austin

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very good mood and feel. I like the crop did great job composition-wise
not easy with two birds in line. The colors of the water are great too.

[Daniel Belasco]

A very nice image but lacking something.
The focus is definately on the grebe? (not sure of the species) on the left. I know it's real difficult to get 2 birds in focus in the same image.
The eyes could be dodged a little and sharpened.
The space above the birds crys out for something to fill it e.g. tree limb, leaf, bank, etc.
The lack of space below the birds is distracting, throws the image out of balance.
A super nice idea and rendition.
Congrats.
dan

[Morkel Erasmus]

I really like the low angle and mood in this - sweet water reflections in the BG. I would place the birds slightly higher in the comp, with more DOF of out-of-focus water in front.

[Connie Mier]

I like the pano composition, very nice colors too. I agree with the sharpening of the birds.
Connie

[Graham Smith.]

Very nice Dan,
I really like the composition you chose for this one.

[Fabs Forns]

Lovely mood and colors. I may sharpen the faces some more?
Getting two in the frame is always a plus for me :)

[Hugh J McLaughlin]

Getting two away from the adults and siblings is not always easy. Nice feel to the image.

[Simon Bennett]

Lovely pano composition.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I love habitat images and this is no exception. Nice graduating BG Daniel. Love the subject placement. Thanks for sharing.

[Ryan Lambert]

Good pano crop here, lovely striking colors and a good comp...

[Juan Aragonés]

It works very fine for me Daniel but I would prefer just a litle bit of additional room at the bottom (keeping your idea of placing both birds very low in the frame)