Sunrise birdscape.

[Stu Bowie]

Peter Kes has been been posting some images from his recent trip to Mankwe, a bird hide in the Pilanesberg Nature reserve. I thought I would share a sunrise from Mankwe taken a little while back. Captured vertically.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 130mm
1/1600
F/5.6
ISO 800

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

[Craig Brelsford]

I'm glad to see you keep an open mind and shoot beautiful landscapes when the opportunity arises. I like the mist rising from the lake, and I love the orange sky. I'd be tempted to clone out that small lone stick near the bottom right-hand corner and the dead leaf in the middle of the tree. I say take out the leaf because the bird in the shot is not very prominent and you want nothing at all competing with it.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Lovely early morning colors, feel.

Good points by Craig;

Despite being taken vertically, I could easily see this cropped horizontally. I don't think the upper 1/2 of the sky adds significantly, and might try a horizontal version cropped down from the top.

After cropping, I might also try about 1/3 stop brighter, to see how the tonal balance and separation looked. Lots of room here for subtle curve adjustments to tweak the tonal balance.

Cheers

Randy

[Joe Senzatimore]

Love it as a vertcal and I feel the stick adds to the desolate feeling created by this fine image. Would love to see more reflection , if you have it.

[Stu Bowie]

Stuart:

Lovely early morning colors, feel.

Good points by Craig;

Despite being taken vertically, I could easily see this cropped horizontally.

Cheers

Randy

Randy, thanks a stack for your feedback. Strangely enough, I have a few of this scene in horizontal, and processed. I will use your suggestions on my other images and post on another day. I couldnt decide which format to post, vertical or horizontal.:2

Craig, Joe, thanks for your feedback and comments too. Always appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

My sense of the image is that you want to convey the early morning feel, but that the action so to speak is on the bottom of the image. With the vertical comp, I tend to keep being drawn up towards the brighter sky, away from what I perceive as the subject of the image.

No right or wrong here, just depends on what you are trying to 'say'

Cheers

Randy

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Excellent mood and feel to this image Stu. I like the comments above, good ideas but do feel vertical comp can work with a bit more space at the bottom TFS

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Stuart, I would leave in the stick - it adds to the feel of the image. I love the misty look - beautifully captured.

[Stu Bowie]

Stuart - nice feel and really early ! What's the bird :) ?

Peter, I think by the shape of the body, it is a sacred Ibis.

[Pieter de Waal]

Stuart I like the feel of this sunrise image, conveys the excitement of the early morning setup in a hide waiting for the action. Good comments above are valuable composition pointers.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stuart, agree with Randy's points. This is so serene....loved the mood and colors.

[James Salywoda]

Such a gorgeous image Stuart it has nice peaceful feel to it.

[Josée Normandeau]

I love it mostly for the colors. So I don't really care if it's a vertical or an horizontal.

The fog adds a lot to the image. Well seen and well done!

[denise ippolito]

A beautiful image Stuart, I love the feel to this one! The colors and mist really look great together.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the feedback and comments. Always appreciated.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

All I can say , is that I love this one !!

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks a stack Rakesh.