Black-winged Stilt

[Chris van Rooyen]

I created this image at a popular bird hide in the Western Cape - I liked the quiet elegance of the scene. Would have liked the body slightly more turned to me, but I guess you cannot always have your cake and eat it;) I removed some distracting elements in the background from the upper 25% of the image, and used curves to independently saturate the blues. All comments welcomed.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Date/Time: 2007:04:24 096:00
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 500
Lens: 500mm
Focal length: 1000mm

[John Cooper]

A lovely capture Chris of this Black-winged Stilt with its perfect reflection!!! With this symetrical image I think your tight cropping works well IMO. Well done!!

[Geurt Bloem]

Chris, your own nit noted, but the image still works very well for me.

[David Steele]

Creatively, your own nit noted, Chris, otherwise pretty well perfect. Technically, an excellent exposure with flawless finishing in your digital darkroom. You must have pondered over the feather on the bird's left leg. . . .

[Philip Lombard]

Chris an aweesome shot, everyting is right on and the reflection is the best. Great job.

[Maxis Gamez]

Oh...man this is terrific. The reflection is fantastic. I would of love the see the bird a little more toward you as it looks like he is walking away. Either way a fantastic image.

The whites are good and the blacks are..... black! :)

Excellent work!

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice capture Chris, love the reflection and pose...:D

[Jim Poor]

Really awesome image with a lot of interesting patterns.

[Alfred Forns]

Beautiful image Chris Always like seeing a crisp reflection !!

I like the leg position very much, exposure is fine and all very sharp. Agree with your asestment regarding the body turn but it does look very good as presented I anything might lighten the reflection just a bit !!! Very fine image

btw I like the bird placement Agree on including the wake behind so there is less room up front !!!

[Glenn Bartley]

Gorgeous image Chris. Ive really been enjoying your images.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

This is a great image, the reflexion on the water is fantastic. great job.

[Juan Aragonés]

Great image Chris, I love it:)

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Chris, you can imagine why this image became one of my favorite image. Fantastic symmetry.

Szimi

[Nikolay Staykov - shotlandetsa]

Lovely image! I like the mirror effect but most of all I live the art look of the photo, putting aside the documentary look of a bird in the water ;)

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments guys, always appreciated:)