Sunrise at duck pond

[David Stephens]

I've decided to get more serious about my scenic photography. I invested in an Arca-Swiss Z1 ballhead and a Wimberley Sidekick so that I can quickly switch from the gimbal to the ballhead for scenic shots, where previously I'd handheld my scenics, leading to some high ISOs.

Here's one of the first of my new stepped up efforts. This is a manmade wetland at Cherry Creek State Park, just South of Denver, Colorado. I spend a lot of time here shooting a variety of ducks, geese, great blue herons, night herons, egrets, etc. I carry a 7D with a telephoto mounted and my 5D MkII around my neck for the scenic opportunities that present themselves quite often.



I cropped this down from a much wider view taken with my EF 24-105mm f/4L IS at 24mm. I took about 20% off each end and some sky and water that lacked much interest. Techinicals are; ISO 100, 0 EV, f/11 and 1/25th second, on the aforementioned Arca-Swiss Z1 mounted on an Induro C414 tripod. Live view after set up. The light was mostly disappointing this morning, but showed some color for just a minute or two before sunrise. RAW conversion and processing in DxO's Optics Pro 6.x.x where I pulled the RGB curve down just a little and increased Saturation to +10, while backing down the exposure until there were only a few blown out pixels at the point of the coming sunrise.

Let me know if I should take this to Eager to Learn, but it looked like the landscape people were here.

Best regards,

Dave

[Kobus Tollig]

I think you have done well here. Great exposure and I like the comp....I would juste take off some space at the top and bottom. Hope to see more of you here. Well done

[David Stephens]

Thanks Kobus.

[Dave Mills]

Hi David, Agree with Kobus regarding taking some off the top. For my taste might crop about half the heavily shadowed area on the right.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Been there the last few days, agree with Kobus and Dave on a nicely done composition

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey David,
Glad to see you taking the landscape plunge! Always nice to branch out. I'd prefer if the stuff in the water....whether they are reeds/grasses/ or fallen tree had a bit more seperation from the treeline silhouette....this would give some added depth to the scene....and then may not require any crop.....as presented agree with the above recommendations. Looking forward to more!

[David Stephens]

Thanks Roman.

I'm not sure that I understand you. There's the grasses around the center of the frame, out in the water and then there's the far shoreline before the tree line. Are those grasses bothering you or the lack of definition of the far shore.

I'm thinking that bringing out that far shore might be a good idea to add definition and depth, but I'm not sure that I'm understanding you.

Dave

[Roman Kurywczak]

This is fine here David. Yes, the grasses in the center of the frame was what I was referring to. Lightening up the far shore/water area around them..... may bring them up more and add depth.

[Robert Amoruso]

There is a nice symmetry in this image with the still reflection but those branches that Roman is referring to mess that up.

The image in the image I see here was a vertical of the tree on the left and its reflection.

[David Stephens]

Yes Robert, I see your image within an image. Thanks for the suggestion.