I had previously only ever seen this species hundreds of yards away during fall migration, so it was quite a thrill to be able to photograph a couple of individuals from full-frame range. The eye is what struck me as most striking...I can only image it surrounded by breeding plumage.
Canon 7D + 100-400L @350mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/4000s., f/6.3, ISO 400, natural light, handheld, FF, A few specks in the water removed via spot removal tool and a bit of eye work to make it all it can be (burn and sponge tools)
Hi Daniel. Congrats on this image. It is always a thrill to photograph a new species this well. I really like the detail on the bird, as well as the eye contact and the tiny water droplets on the head. The blue and brown tones in the water are very nice too.
Because of the distortion in the reflection, my first thought was to crop up from the bottom to remove the head, but I don't like how it balances without the reflection, so I think you made the right decision.
Wicked good with a perfect head angle and a nice bow wave . Your 7D images look like Mark IV images. I have been wanting to suggest that you create a tutorial that covers the very basics of your capture and optimization techniques with the 7D letting us know if you do anything different (from with your 40D images) and include your preferred noise reduction. Heck, I would be glad to publish it in a Bulletin after you post it. I have been meaning to do this ever since I saw your killer nuthatch image.... With all the extra work (tanks a stack for that) that you have been doing for BPN I hope that you have time for the article .
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
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A lovely image of this beautiful Grebe. Good low angle, nice calm water and a great HA of the bird. Having spend a lot of time with these birds in the past I feel like the colours could be even more saturated than Ofers post without it being too much. Especially the eye looks much less red than I would expect it to be. If it were mine I would up the saturation a bit more as compared to Ofers repost.
Lovely bird nicely done. I agree with Mr Morris about the wonderful bow wave.
The eye does not look right to me. As per Krijn's comment, the eye of this species in life is unreal and should look over-saturated. And the bright circle in the pupil looks strange; I'm not sure whether this might be side-effects of work you did on the eye or it just turned out that way, but I find it odd either way.
I hope you get your chance with a breeding-plumaged bird. It's a jaw-dropper.
Daniel,
These truly are beautiful birds. nice low vantage point and head angle and equally pleasing composition. I seen my first one of these several weeks back, but very distant, the eye was extremely vivid to me even from 80 yards or so. Enjoyed viewing, congrats on adding this fine species to your files.
Wonderful image. Congrats on being able capture a fantastic image of this bird. Great shooting angle, nice head angle, and I really like the small wave in front of it.
Well done.
Daniel, very nice IQ. liked that wave touching the breast. If me, I'd lighten the water a bit(raising the curve that convers the water values a bit might help). I have to do that many times for Shoveller images as when you protect the whites, the water becomes a tad too dark for my tastes.
Thanks all! Yes, the eye is a strange one indeed and I was afraid to over do it as far as saturation goes. The yellow line in the pupil is there in all the image files I took of this fella...part of the awesomeness of this species' eyes I did photograph a second individual that had a much more vivid red eye including a red line from the eye down to the bill...very cool, I will post it later on a separate thread.
P.S. Thanks for the compliment Artie! I will shoot you an e-mail...
Last edited by Daniel Cadieux; 11-11-2011 at 08:51 PM.
Reason: addendum
Horned Grebe - A First For Me!
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