American coot

[Christian Dionne]

Image taken last week at the San Francisco botanical garden, I wish I could have gotten even a couple of inches lower...

Slight crop for composition.




308mm (220mm + TC 1.4)
1/640
f/8
ISO 320
manual focus

Thanks for your comments!

[Bob Pelkey]

Crisp image well cropped. The background is complimentary.

[Duane Noblick]

Love the low angle, BG color, sharpness and great job on the white beak not blowing it out like I usually do.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good angle, exposure control and details. I also like the colors of the water. If it were mine, I would crop a bit off the bottom since the reflection is a bit blurry anyway, maybe just above the 'third bill'.

[Randy Stout]

Christian:

Its mainly been said, but superb exposure on this guy, with bill saved, yet good detail in blacks. Nice eye
Striking colors in the water. Agree with Axel re: crop.

I think the shooting angle is pretty good. Lower would have further degraded the reflection, and of course there is always the concern of something undesirable showing up in the background.

Very nice.

Randy

[Bert De Tilly]

Hello Christian,

Fantastic image, the blacks are superb are well detailed, the BG is fantastic excellent focus.

[Katie Rupp]

Love the bg and great exposure job and I know that Coots are difficult because we have lots of them here and I like watching/trying to catch their antics.

[Stu Bowie]

Christian, good low angle, and well done on exposing the blacks, as these guys are difficult. You have done well with the white of the bill too. I agree regarding the crop from the bottom, and what a great BG too.

[Christian Dionne]

Thank you all for your comments,
Axel and Stuart I also agree with the crop of the bottom, it balances better visually too (I did not post a new version, just scroll up to physically crop it...)