Wandering Tattler

[Joerg Rockenberger]

This image was taken in July 2010 at the mouth of the Santa Ana river in Huntington Beach, CA. How I wish to have been an inch or so lower to avoid the merging of the belly with the rock...

Best, JR

Canon 1DMkIV (rented), 500F4IS, Canon 1.4TC II, 700 mm, 1/640s, F7.1, ISO 400, Manual Exposure, Gitzo Tripod w/ Mongoose 3.5a

[Randy Stout]

Joerg:

Good self critique on the shooting angle. Very close however.

Your bird looks sharp, well exposed, like the one legged stance.

I might consider gently toning down the highlights in the rock to downplay it a bit in the image. It makes the image rather bottom heavy visually.

The brightness in the extreme lower left corner would be nice for the entire rock.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Joerg, apart from the belly 'touching' the rock, I feel your shooting angle works well. I dont think a slightly lower angle would have worked. I do like the the one legged pose.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Joerg, I would have prefered a slightly lower angle and agree with Randy about toning down the rock slightly.
You have captured beautiful details in the bird and that's a great pose!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

JR, loved the stance and the details. TFS.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for taking the time to comment. Attached is a repost in which I toned down the rock (and the yellow leg) with a levels adjustment layer. Thoughts? Thanks, JR