Spoonbill action at Alafia Banks

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Here is another image from the spoonbill action at Alafia Banks two weeks ago with James Shadle.

This spoonbill is better positioned in the frame and the HA is better than the previous image posted. This time I was less tight with the 1.4X III TC (and autofocus) .

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1DMIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at -2/3: 1/800 sec. at f/13 set manually.

All comments are welcome.

Thanks for looking.

[Randy Stout]

Clemens:
Great action, flying water, pose, colors, eye contact. Nice BG too, not always easy at Alafia.

Much stronger image in my opinion.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent!

[Levina de Ruijter]

Looking at the image I feel that the bird is a bit tight in the frame and maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems slightly tilted? Nitpickings no doubt, as this is a terrific image. Very powerful and showing all those shades of red of this beautiful bird.

[Amy DeStefanis]

Hmmm, it doesn't look tilted to me.... But I agree it's pretty tight on the left side. Maybe because I'd like to see the edge ripples on the water, or give him some more room to fly into. But I love the ruffled feathers, and the shape the arc of his wings make with his neck (and the nice pink color in the shadow of the wing as well as the nice pink in the sun.... ). I went on one of James Shadle's workshops once - before the Hooptie Deux. I'll have to check that out sometime! :)

Amy D.

[denise ippolito]

Clemens, I like the action you captured and the nice sharp details. Can't comment on Levina's "tilted" comments as I have yet to get one straight myself! Beautiful image.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Clemens, very nice action, love the splashing water. Very nicely captured!

[Grace Scalzo]

I think that the tilt is an illusion and our eyes are being tricked by the shape of the circle that the bird is creating. I'd personally rotate it ever so slightly clockwise, even if it is straight, to please the eye.

What I LOVE about this image is that even the droplets look pink.

[James Shadle]

Nitpickings no doubtbird.

I can tell you, Clemens, like most of us here want to produce the "perfect image".
Negative or positive.

With that in mind, it's not nitpicking to point out even minor legitimate points for improvement.

Clemens,
Great job on handling what can be a difficult background.
The image is sharp, well exposed, well composed, the perspective is optimal and you have an beautiful subject demonstrating and interesting behavior.
Most of all the image holds your attention.

It does look like maybe one degree or less rotation is needed.
IMO a little more room behind the Spoonie, showing more of the "splash" would put this over the top.

James

[ChasMcRae]

My personal opinion is that in this type of shot could have moved the bird to the left with the water action balancing the bird breaking the rule of leaving most of space in front of the bird.
Love the action,exposure,color and arching wing over the head.

[Sid Garige]

Killer image Clemens. Great eye contact and behavior.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Fantastic colors and sharpness. Nice low angle as well. I think that more space all around would make this excellent image even stronger. JR

[Stu Bowie]

Great action captured here, and just love the colours on the spoonie, together with the flying water. With regards to rotation, there are so many lines at the bottom to work with, I would still give this a touch of CCW rotation.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Clemens, wonderful indeed. Loved the low angle. Action is great and the contrast with the calm water is what makes it special. Agree with James on a little room behind.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Fantastic action, really like this. I would agree with suggestion, a bit more room at the back TFS

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I do agree that more room around would have been nicer (either on the left or right side to show more of the water ripples and splashes). With me (6 foot 6) sitting in the water underneath my tripod to get as low as possible, you have to take it as it comes, unfortunately. It is not that easy to pick up everything and move backwards to get the spoonie smaller in the frame (even without breaking a tripod leg). I did change the 2.0x TC III for the 1.4x TC II which gave me already more space than with the previous posted image.