Touchdown

[purplehaze]

Hi all. I have been too busy to indulge either of my two hobbies lately, but I did snatch some precious time to shoot the birds on the beach on Monday morning. This is one of my favorites. It is not super sharp, but it shows this bird's plumage to advantage.



I was surprised to see a pair of loons swimming around. They are not common on our lake. They were too far out for my lens, unfortunately, but I am going to keep an eye out for them this weekend.

[Manfred M]

Excellent image Janis and the post processing is very effective as well. While parts of the background are fairly light, there is separation (sometimes barely) between the background and the lightest parts of the feathers.

The tiny bit of texture in the water and sky bring out some depth to the shot. That works extremely well,

Well done!

[Wavelength]

A really wonderful image and you clicked at the right moment!!!

[Stagecoach]

Nicely captured and presented Janis.

[purplehaze]

Thank you, Manfred, Nandakumar and Grahame. Glad you like it. I lucked out on the background, which is in fact all water.

[DanK]

A really stunning image, and well composed and processed.

I have one suggestion: I might darken the bird a bit to increase the separation and increase local contrast in some form to make the details stand out more. As a very quick and dirty illustration, I added texture via the camera raw filter and then darkened the bird by pulling down the middle of a curve. see what you think of this direction. It may not be to your taste, of course.

[xpatUSA]

Brill. A splendid moment captured splendidly!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Ted! Dan, I like your version, too. I will play with it as you suggested at my end. Thanks!

[lovelife65]

No critiques from me, but I had to log on to say FANTASTIC image. Beautiful and very well done.

[pschlute]

Wonderful image. The triangle of rippled reflection is a fantastic lead-in to the wonderful bird.

ps it is an excellent demonstration of "high key" photography

[wilgk]

I can only echo others, really well done indeed, terrific shot

[purplehaze]

Thank you, Sharon, Peter and Kay. Your words are very encouraging!

[mugge]

Janis, the processing of this image is beautifully done. If it were mine it would be on the wall.
Cheers Ole

An afterthought. Instead of increasing the contrast of the feathers how about selectively reduce the contrast of the feathers?

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Ole. Yes, it's one of those images that I think could be taken in one direction or the other. I will play around with it when I next have the opportunity.

[lunarbo]

I'm joining the fan club on this shot !

The high key effect really works well here, and you caught the wings at exactly the right moment

[billtils]

Nothing to add to all the thoroughly well-deserved comments already made (other than that I agree)!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Bo and Bill! Much appreciated.