Gannet Rising

[gail bisson]

Canon 7D
F 4 500mm and 1.4x converter
cropped by 50%
SS 1/4000
f 6.3
I am not sure about this image.I love the unusual pose-like the phoenix rising out of the fire except this is a gannet rising out of the water! I wish the left side of the face was not in shadow. When I fooled around with S/H nothing seemed to help. Delete or keep? Big crop so IQ iffy...
Anything I can do to improve this shot?
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[dankearl]

Gail, in my opinion, compared to most everything you post here, this is not up to your standards.
Tough love, but either the crop is just too large or high ISO (you didn't say).
The image of the bird rising out of the water is a nice capture, but the photo just
doesn't work for me.

[gail bisson]

Thanks Dan,
I think I knew that in my head but my heart loved the pose and wanted to make the picture work somehow! Now I wish I could delete the picture and thread
Gail

[Melissa Groo]

Gannets are such wicked cool birds, it's wonderful you get to see them and share your shots with us. I like the idea of this too but with the harsh light and the IQ, it's a tough one to rescue. As for wanting to delete, i have sure been there myself, know what you mean!
Next time I know you'll nail it-you usually do!

[Grace Scalzo]

I have a folder called "shots I want". In it I put in failed attempts of things I think are cool. And then I look at it once in a while. This image has such potential and knowing you and your tenacity, I bet before long you will get what you dream of.

[Brendan Dozier]

I agree, Gail, this has a lot of potential, and I really love the pose. I think it would have looked soooo good closer-up!

[gail bisson]

I have a folder called "shots I want". In it I put in failed attempts of things I think are cool. And then I look at it once in a while. This image has such potential and knowing you and your tenacity, I bet before long you will get what you dream of.

What a great idea Grace!
Gail
I think I am married to this picture because it is so unusual for us to get gannets in by the shore and I just love them.

[Mital Patel]

Gail

sometimes i keep rules aside for some different things and this is the image i would not think about doing or changing or anything else rather than enjoying the moment you have got here.

Cheers for this one

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Gail, I can see why you're married to this image. The pose/expression is priceless. To me, having thrown his arms up, he has this "what have I gotten myself into now" look (not very phoenix-like, I know :)
These are cool birds indeed. I got to spend a few hours at Muriwai, NZ a couple years ago in an Australasian colony with these guys all around me. Great time to say the least.

Alan Murphy shared a very cool trick for such tricky exposures where he used an adjustment brush in ACR to selectively tweak control exposure. I really like that technique and for me it works a whole lot better for me than burning, linear blending etc.
See his Salvaged Barred Owl thread, if you haven't already.

PS:

I was just pointed to a thread in Ed. Resources that I hadn't seen - and incidentally it's a Gannet image too that talks about using linear burn blending with great results!
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...read.php/18298
I've got some experimentation to do to see why my whites turn out rather grey when I do linear burn.

[Karl Egressy]

I like the pose very much, Gail. The Gannets are sooooo beutiful.

[Arthur Morris]

Pose is wicked and I like the shadow of the bill on the far wing but for me the off-angled light here is an image-wrecker