Marbled Godwit #1

[Jay Gould]

First day using my 7D under the tutilage of James and learning to sit in the water and use my tripod. Had a lot of fun with the Cap't.

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 02 0ct 09; 8:42AM
Light condition: sunny
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 600
Extender: 2.0X
Distance: .640m
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no
ISO: 400
Exp Prog: manual
Speed: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f/7.1
Exp Comp: None
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: yes
Filter: None
Crop: 25%
Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then CS4 - plus Topaz Suite and Pixel Genius Sharpening.
All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[RAM MALLYA]

Lovely capture Jay very sharp the frozen droplet falling from the beak is a bonus

[Christian Dionne]

Love the shot, I wish the water droplet was a little higher...
Great BG, I would darken the leg a little (the left one in the sun) Beautiful colors

[Bob Pelkey]

I've never sat in the water while photographing shore and wading birds, but I find myself kneeling at every opportunity. Criticism of crops I've read here has me feel that the bird needs to be positioned slightly left in the image which I support. The godwit appears a little overexposed. I would have used -1/3 EB. Colors in the water are very nice.

[Randy Stout]

Jay:

Good advice above. I think it is a lovely bird, excellent angle in frame and shooting angle.
He is too centered in the frame, as Bob pointed out. It is tricky with birds with long bills, or very long tails, but I would try to have more space in front of the tip of the bill, than behind the tail. Because of the thinness of the bill, it wouldn't take much more in front to balance it.

I also agree, 1/4 to 1/3 stop too much exposure on bird.

The drop is fun. It was like a little hidden treat, and when I saw it, I took another trip around the image looking for any other interesting bits. Good to keep the viewer engaged.

Cheers

Randy

[Rich Steel]

Jay

Very nicely lit image with a good combination of colours. I agree a 1/3 down on the exposure would have been great. I would have preferred some more room to the right of the bird as its a bit central as presented.

Cheers

Rich

[Jay Gould]

As requested by my teachers, I reopend the original DNG in LR, lowered the exposure by 1/3, and changed the crop so that the RH 1/3 line was moved from the eye to the tip of the beak. This turned it into a pano - no problem with that; above the image as cropped is a very dark band that was removed and below the image as cropped is ugly water.

In PS I first applied Pixel Genius Cap Sharpener and then used PG Creative Sharpener to further add some sharpening to the bird only. Flattend and applied Topaz Denoise and Topaz Detail Features. Then saved for web etc. Hope you like it!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Jay, I feel you did an excellent job in the repost! Nice looking image...

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Hi Jay, good to see you here and I agree the repost is just what the Doctor ordered.

I love the little wave in front of the legs and you got to get those fingers working a bit faster to get the droplets about halfway between the beak tip and the water.

Sitting in the water, hmmmmm, hope you had "Piles" of fun.:D

The Capt. seems to be the bees knees.:)

[Simon Bennett]

Nice pose and crisp presentation Jay.