Night Landing
From my local lake early this month. Light had faded and I was packing up to leave when I noticed this DC Cormorant heading toward the one remaining patch of sunlight on the far side of the lake. Fired off a few frames from great distance. In my mind, this falls into the large category of nice ideas that didn't quite materialize; but I thought I'd share it and see what folks think.
D7000, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 800, 1/1600s @ f/7.1, manual exp.
Bill, I think it materialized very nicely. The light on the bird's face and the reflection are right-on. I''m not sure I understand why the 1/1600 sec didn't freeze the motion of the water behind the bird (or is it just OOF due to the choice of aperture?).
Thanks Ian. When I processed this, I selected just the bird to work on, and ultimately did a considerable amount of sharpening on just that layer. I ran considerable NR on the BG that included the splash behind the bird. If I were to re-process it from scratch, I would include the splash in the selection for sharpening and no NR.Originally Posted by Ian Cassell
Bill,
Greetings. I really like the color with the orange-blue contrast. I think an angle where the head isn't in alignment with the wing would make this shot... about half way between this angle and straight in. Thanks for posting this one... interesting overall chiaroscuro look.
Cheers,
-Michael-
Bill,
Hard to get close to this bird, I can never get the shot I want with these guys. The ideal is great and you demonstrate a nice eye with original composition. It would be stronger if the head and wing did not intersect and the motion blur was reduced. Anyway, nice picture keep at it.
Great ideal to shoot the light, that is my focus the majority of the time too.
Thank you Michael and Jeff. Yes, I agree it would have been better if the head had been clear of the wing. I also wish I had sharpened up the water splash. But I guess my biggest problem with it is the poor IQ as a result of the large crop and/or motion blur. Now that I've seen the potential, I'll keep my eyes out for one that decides to land a bit closer to me.
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