I was shooting sand cranes across the pond tring to find space between the reeds when up popped the Anhingha. I am surprised the image came out as I was so startled. I thought it was a cool shot.
Jay
Canon xti Rebel
Canon 100-400mm 5.6L IS UFM
Canon 1.4x TC
560mm
ISO400
F8
1/800/sec
You captured an interesting moment for sure. The exposure looks good and the color is nice. I would suggest a different crop to get the bird out of the center of the frame, also I think you could sharpen the head and the eye a little more. Nice image.
Nice capture, Jay. These guys (or ladies, in this case) pop their heads up so quickly and unpredictably.
I agree with Joel's suggestion of a different crop and wonder if this might work as a vertical crop. Also, the whites on the underside of the neck look like they may need to be toned down a bit.
Jay, not bad for it being a surprise image but you are fighting with exposure here. If you look at the histogram you'll see that you have spikes on both ends - meaning that you've lost detail in the whites of his neck and the dark area at the base of the water. If you have this in RAW format, I'd go back and see if you can't bring back some of those details.
Comp-wise I tried several different sizes/shapes and nothing I did was putting that beautiful eye in a ROT's position but I think a tighter (smaller) horizontal image would work best with a definite reduction of space to the right. I'd also look at sharpening up that head and eye a bit more.
Thank you for your suggestions. I did what I could and tried to brush the white area of the neck and recropped with less space to the right. I do think the image was improved and I thank you all for your kind direction.
Jay
Anhingha
Posting Permissions
