Spoonie from Ding this morning.

[Bob Blanchard]

Here's a Spoonbill from Ding Darling this morning. Nice going there during the week, as there's no one there. Small flock of Spoonies. Nothing spectacular, but some nice flight opportunities. Good light.

Canon 1DsMII, 600mm f/4, f/8, ISO 400, -2/3 EV, 1/2500, hand held (was packing up to leave when the last one took off!), IS turned off.

[Grace Scalzo]

This is beautiful, Bob. I love the colors. Hand held, no less, quite a feat.

[Mike Tracy]

Real pretty spoonie with a wing position and light that showcases their beauty. Undecided about the partial reflection but the colors of water and the bird really pop.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice colors, wings up pose, SH, and EXP. I am fine with the partial REFL but not with the dark horizon line....

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the wing position, sharpness and dangling feet and might blur the BG a bit more.

[Fabs Forns]

Beautiful colors and wing position. Agree on the BG blur.
Lucky for you they were close to the road :)

[Bob Blanchard]

Artie - I didn't like the horizon either.

Fabs - Can you imagine what would happen if I waded out after them at Ding? They'd probably call in a SWAT team! Thank God for Little Estero! We can actually "work" the birds there....we don't have to rely on dumb luck.

Axel - I also agree on a bit more BG blur. I've been shooting the 1Ds at ISO 400 a lot more, so I need to put a bit more effort into PP to clean up the slight bit of additional noise.

Thanks all!

[Nagesh Mula]

Its a beautiful picture Bob. I have never seen a Spoonbill let alone taking pics, so can't say on the difficulties. I like the flight and very good exposure. You can't help here with the dark BG but that should not be criteria to take off the credit. Great Job and Good luck for next time :-).

[Ramon M. Casares]

Horizon line convered so I just want to congratulate you for the great pose, light, colors, detail and comp.

[David Hemmings]

I love this image! The wing position and the comp, light and colors all come together so well!

[Don Thompson]

I'm here to learn; would someone explain what is wrong with the horizon?

[Ilija Dukovski]

Uh, like the color of the bird here, and the pose is excellent. Very nice.
The line in BG is unfortunate but don't mind too much.

[Harshad Barve]

beautiful bird and nice pose
Agrred with Arthur and Ramon here
TFS
Harshad

[Bob Blanchard]

I'm here to learn; would someone explain what is wrong with the horizon?

There are actually two "issues" in this regarding horizon lines. The minor one is the transitional water color band that passes through just above the birds feet. That one is minor, and easily fixed if I wanted to spend the time doing it. The second is the pronounced horizon line where the water and trees come together. The darker shade of the water and the shadows under the trees form a very pronounced line, which are disecting the subject in a distracting place (cutting his wings off). While it may not seem like a big deal, it does distract the eyes from where you want them. Now, if the position of the bird relative to the horizon line were different (if the bird were either completely above the line and against the trees, or below the line against the water) then it might not be so noticable. As it is, about the only way it could have been worse was if it were cutting his head off. I hope that explains it.

I still like the image, and it will probably do fine as a stock image....but it would get killed in a contest entry.

[Rod Wiley]

Very nice Bob, great colors

[colincarter]

excellent flight shot, great wing position, great lighting, composition and colours. issues with the horizon already covered.

[Ryan Lambert]

Super image Bob, good colour and pose captured here, bg nit covered. I would maybe just do some selective NR on the bg...

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful image this, loved the wing position and details here.. congrats..

[Don Thompson]

There are actually two "issues" in this regarding horizon lines. The minor one is the transitional water color band that passes through just above the birds feet. That one is minor, and easily fixed if I wanted to spend the time doing it. The second is the pronounced horizon line where the water and trees come together. The darker shade of the water and the shadows under the trees form a very pronounced line, which are disecting the subject in a distracting place (cutting his wings off). While it may not seem like a big deal, it does distract the eyes from where you want them. Now, if the position of the bird relative to the horizon line were different (if the bird were either completely above the line and against the trees, or below the line against the water) then it might not be so noticable. As it is, about the only way it could have been worse was if it were cutting his head off. I hope that explains it.

I still like the image, and it will probably do fine as a stock image....but it would get killed in a contest entry.

Thanks Bob. Great explanation. I like the image too even with the minor problems.