A fantasy of feathers

[Bill Dix]

I'm curious to know if this resonates with anyone. What amazes me is the great variety of feather textures on just this one part of this Great Blue Heron. This was cropped from a GBH head shot -- I'll post the original after this -- and I suspect most may prefer the larger image. But I thought I might try something different with this crop just to see if it worked.

D90 | 500VR | ISO 640 | 1/320s @ f5 | -0.7 EV | HH braced on railing

[Bill Dix]

Here's the larger image from which the above was cropped. This is actually about 75% of FF, cropped for comp.

[William Malacarne]

Bill

I like both of them, they show very good detail. If I had to make a choice it would be the first one.

Bill

[Myer Bornstein]

Bill
I like it is shows a very differnt view of a GBH than normal - like the second picture

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Sorry Bill - I like the second one. Plenty of feathers there for me... :)

If the eye on the first post would be somewhere else, I think I would like it more.


Mikko

[Brendan Dozier]

I like the second one, and agree that a different palcement of the eye would improve it.

[Paul Guris]

I like the second picture. It's not only more "complete", but the resolution on the image is so high that you still get all of the detail and texture of the different feather tracts. Really sweet shot.

[Rob Mckenzie]

I agree, second one shows great detail. Also like the composition of the second one a lot. The head sits in the negative space beautifully.

[nancy hazen]

I like the first one, but would like to see the crop brought out a little farther out to the right.
Nancy

[Julie Kenward]

I think the first one would work if you could get the eye closer to the ROT's top right position. It's so close to the frame's edge that my eye is leaving the frame. Great texture in the feathers as you mentioned and I think this is definitely worth playing around with different crops to find what works best! Lovely image, Bill!

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for looking. I thought that by putting the eye way up in the corner, rather than in the more conventional ROT position, it might create a different, more dynamic comp. But Jules makes good point that it takes the eye (that is, the viewer's) right up and out of the frame. I'll experiment with some other options. I appreciate all the comments.

[pat lillich]

i really like what you are experimenting with here - but agree with the others, and would love to see the crop extended more to the right to see how it looks....love the flash of color from the eye.

[Dave Leroy]

Both work for me Bill.

I might give a bit more room for the eye in the first one if mine.

Very nice close up.

Dave