Hi Ulli- Nice bird! Love the low angle and the pose although I would prefer the head to be rotated more CCW to show the eye a bit better. The image is sharp and a smaller f-stop would have made the bill-tip and more of the body in focus. Depending on the body you have you should be able to use ISO 400 and then stop down without losing your shutter speed. I think the bird is slightly tight in the frame at the top and if you added some space there you could shave a little of the bottom and keep the same aspect ratio.
I like the image as presented, I like the up close and personal and the eye contact ( not for every image). The low angle obtained with a cooking pot eh, you'll have to give us the recipe. John's suggestions regarding f-stop would help with the depth of field though.
I like this image a lot. The low angle is wonderful and I particularly like the little bit of foam in the water. I know this doesn't meet the prescribed HA but sometimes it's grand to see the bird looking right at you. I agree with the others that a smaller f stop would have helped with depth of field.
Hi Ulli - that Sigma 500 F4.5 is a nice lens (Sure wish I had not sold mine)
Like the low angle - HA has been mentioned - IMHO - A little more head turn so that both eyes were clearly visible and both looking directly down the barrel would have improved.
Would have bumped the ISO up a little to enable you to stop down without sacrificing any SS enabling you to stop down a little.
A little tight in the frame and a tad of CW rotation required??
I also love the bubbles in the water at his feet - that give a real sense of movement to the image. I wonder, though, if I'm the only one seeing the drop of water just left of the bird's feet that I believe is actually on the camera lens instead of on the surface of the water. If so, I'd clone that out!
I have another frame that shows a more "face to face" head angle as suggested by Lance. I will post that sometime later.
There was positively no water on the lens, must be a funny reflection from the bubbly water surface. Not sure if a water droplet on the lens front element would show up in such a defined and crisp way. Maybe on a fish eye or short focal lenght lens, but on a 500mm?
Dunlin, NS Canada, Sept 2010
