Canada Goose

[Brendan Dozier]

Taken at Lake Cuyamaca up in the local mountains of San Diego. Overcast sky. These guys were all taking turns to see who could do the most impressive wing flap. ACR, CS5, cloned out a drainage pipe from BG.

7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2.0x
1/1250
5.6
ISO 800

[Bill Dix]

I'm guessing this one won the wingflap contest. Great action, water drops. Nice comp and bg colors.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful pose, great head angle, detail. It looks a little washed out to me, maybe needs more Contrast? Or some darkening. Looks lighter than the Canada geese I'm used to seeing. And maybe some motion blur on the eye?
Stunning detail in those wings!

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Bill & Melissa, much appreciated.
Melissa, agree the image does look a bit drab or washed out, and wish I had some sunlight to warm it up a bit. I think it needs something but not exactly sure. Is there a part of the bird that seems too light to you or is it the whole bird? I did a contrast adjustment perhaps that made it too light. I have never seen this goose before, and did the id through google images. Looking at those and mine, it seems like the breast area is lightest, with light underwing, and the top of wing is darker. At first I was ok with some blur on the wings to indicate motion, but now that you mention it, I'm wondering if there is a bit too much. Have not photographed birds in a while so I'm a bit rusty.

[Stu Bowie]

Brendan, impressive detail on those wings, and overall good DOF. Well timed to capture the wingflap too. I find the contrast to be fine, but maybe a little tweak here and there will work.

[Ken Watkins]

Brendon,

I agree with everybody else on the need for a little more oomph, I am puzzled by the patch of seemingly less detail on the wing in the middle upper half.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Bill & Melissa, much appreciated.
Melissa, agree the image does look a bit drab or washed out, and wish I had some sunlight to warm it up a bit. I think it needs something but not exactly sure. Is there a part of the bird that seems too light to you or is it the whole bird? I did a contrast adjustment perhaps that made it too light. I have never seen this goose before, and did the id through google images. Looking at those and mine, it seems like the breast area is lightest, with light underwing, and the top of wing is darker. At first I was ok with some blur on the wings to indicate motion, but now that you mention it, I'm wondering if there is a bit too much. Have not photographed birds in a while so I'm a bit rusty.

I'm not sure what would work exactly, I am certainly no whiz in Photoshop. Maybe it's a color cast thing. Hopefully someone else can weigh in, like Ofer, who is a master at bringing images to their full potential.
I think the blur on the wings is fine, I just thought the face could use a bit more sharpening.
Overall, though, a really fine image, Brendan!

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Stuart, Ken, and Melissa, think I'll play around with it some more.

I agree with everybody else on the need for a little more oomph, I am puzzled by the patch of seemingly less detail on the wing in the middle upper half.

Yes, I noticed that smoothness there too. I did do a small amount of NR in the RAW file, but it may also be in part due to the motion blur.

I will go back to my workshop now, wounded and limping

[arash_hazeghi]

great dynamic pose and I like the water drops