Although a bit dark perhaps, I liked the backlighting of the shrimp. I also am partial to blue. Neck may be a bit blown, but best I could do. Also best I could do on the POV without jumping in. I would love to hear your opinions on this one :)
12/17/2010 Edmonds WA Waterfront
Canon 40D 400mm 1/800s f5.6 ISO 500 AE partial metering ec 0 hand held
I think you have hit the important points of the image.
The shrimp looks great because of the lighting angle, the red eye shows up reasonably well.
Against the dark background, would have needed a significant -EC setting to hold the whites on the bird.
This would further darken the overall image however and make separation of the bird from background worse. If available, you could have used flash with a better beamer to even out the illumination a bit, perhaps help with the separation of bird from BG.
Looks sharp.
Lower shooting angle would have helped, but not possible. When shooting from an open boat, I sit right down on the bottom, but perhaps that wasn't an option here.
Terry, good HA from the Grebe, shows the eye nicely, together with the catch. I like the hint of droplets on the back of the Grebe. The angle is a touch steep, but sometimes we have no option.
Many thanks for your helpful comments, Randy and Stuart. I am finally ordering a better beamer for my 580EX! Don't know why I have put it off for so long :)
Thanks again for your help!
Terry
Tough shooting conditions but looks like you made the best of it. Good comments above. It is unfortunate that here in Western WA so many of the available areas don't allow for real good low shooting angles.
TFS
Todd
Thanks very much, Andrew and Todd for commenting!
Todd - part of the problem is mostly I am shooting from a boat dock or pier - so unless I hang over the edge I'm stuck with what I can get. On the other hand being able to get so close to these water birds makes up for it in my view :) Thanks again!