This is a crop from a shot I took this morning at a local pond in Reston, VA. The GBH was very cooperative, making pass after pass through the water hunting minnows allowing me to refine my settings and timing. It wasn't until I downloaded the photos that I realized there were a dozen minnows jumping for their lives every time the GBH struck.
D300, 500mm, F8, 1/2000, -1/3, ISO 1250.
PP: NR on BG, selective sharpening of the many eyes, additional exposure reduction.
I'd be curious to your thoughts in general, but specifically: are the lily flowers & BG distracting and did I leave enough room on the sides?
You're a little snug on the left and also the bottom of the frame. I do find the lilies somewhat distracting; perhaps you could try toning them down before removing them. I like the action captured.
I also like the moment you captured. I especially like the minnows fleeing the heron. In addition to Doug's comments I think the image could benefit from a slight counter-clock-wise rotation (0.87%). Also for critiques I find your signature a bit large an therefore distracting. Thanks for sharing.
Love the minnows and your timing and the nice angle to the bird. Phil is right but this needs a decent amount of rotation. The heron is a young bird and the eye is sharp, but those lilies are distracting....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
I wanted to thank everyone for their comments. I will work on a repost when I have more time later this weekend, and will add a bit more to the left and bottom, adjust the rotation (at first I thought it was optical illusion as the line of the splash is at a different angle from the line of the background) and experiment with toning down or cloning out the lilies.
Artie, I have another shot I like with the heron at full extension in the opposite direction, but I could envision your comment that the HA is slightly away from the camera in that one, so I'm glad you like this one.
Flee!!!
Reply With Quote
