Ballerina Preen

[Randy Stout]

Another spoonie from my trip with James Shadle on Tampa Bay.

D300 500mm f/4 @ 7.1 1/2500s Manual ISO 320
Post: 30% crop for composition Curves selective sharpening

Advice always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the color, the details and sharpness. This does look like an elegant ballet dancer to me :D

[Deborah Hanson]

Another beautiful photograph. Eye contact, color, feather detail, and pose all make this wonderfully done.
Water and background give a depth to the image as well (it doesn't look flat - is what I mean).
Curious, would a crop where the bird is lower (less reflection - altho that color is great) and more above the bird make as much of an impact as this crop?

Trying to learn. Thanks.
Deb

[Gary Esman]

Awesome shot Randy! Can't get that at KBS!

[Stu Bowie]

Fitting title Randy, it suits the ballerina posture. Good DOF, sharp, and just love those colours.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful expo Randy, nice pose and details..

[Callie de Wet]

Lovely picture, nice col;ours and pose, like the square crop. Mich clone out the highlights in the dark BG, top, right.

[Chris Kotze]

Beautiful pose and colours. Lovely looking bird

[Jim Crosswell]

Great title and image Randy!

[Fabs Forns]

Gorgeous pose and great EXP. To me it's a bit tight on top. I'll tell you my secret for evaluating this.
The thumbnail is my scale, there I can see where I may want more space. The bigger picture may be deceiving.
This has to be a female (probably got it all wrong :) ), love the coquettish pose.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice.

Deborah: Several ways to crop this one. I wanted to play up the sense of "an elegant line" to match the ballerina theme, and thought the longer lead in below helped with this. The reflection itself isn't strong, but I was relying on the color to do the job.

Fabs:
re; Crop on top. Well, I can see it either way, but for me, since the head is bent down preening, that pose requires less head room than if it was up. I don't have anymore on top, but would be easy to add.
Interesting tip about the thumb nail cropping guide tech. :D

Cheers

Randy

[Ilija Dukovski]

Beautiful plumage and great colors, pose excellent too,
like the dark BG, the birds pops up nicely. I like it very much.
I would probably try to get rid of as many as possible light patches in the upper
BG. Very nice.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Beautiful BG and pose. Not much to criticize in this one. I wonder if a crop just a bit on the BOTTOM might make it better, not to take out the reflection entirely but to give the bird a solid base. Maybe about half of the reflection up from the bottom.