Bird in Blue

[slejhamer]

I wasn't expecting this to be quite so monochromatic, nor was I expecting a silhouette. :)

I had to use a fast shutter because the little bugger would not stand still for long. Unfortunately that gave a "rocky" look to the waves.

Please offer comments or suggestions.


http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/birdinblue.jpg

[G2Jim]

I like it. (Sorry, no suggestions)

[Leighow]

MITCH

Gorgeous shot.

I am scrollinh same, and the temptation is to cut the sky down 2/3 or say about 1 inch (same distance as bird to closest wave. That seems to lower my gaze.

But in Eland's terms.. you have your S & L without any R.

HOWIE

[slejhamer]

Thanks Jim & Howie for your comments.

I agree on the cropping - the image you see is uncropped. I only hit it with auto-contrast and some sharpening before I posted - didn't want to add a bias. :)

Will play around with the "L" too - I want to brighten up the dark shadows in the waves. (Thanks for the tip, eland!)

[cgesteland]

I agree with Howie, the sky doesn't play a big part here so u could cut it down.

Love the moody blue feel, looks like a poster. And for some reason that bird makes me chuckle. It just seems to have a "What the...?" posture to me.

Maybe I need to get more sleep.

[henkbos]

Good shot, although a little too blue for my taste. Guess there wasn't much color around anyway.
Only if you have time left: try to flip the bird and rotate the picture.

[Don Ellis]

Different eyes, different opinions...

I would shave only a bit of sky out, if any. If you follow the rule of thirds -- which seems a natural application here -- the sky fills the upper third, with the waves in the middle third, followed by the "bird third."

It's also an oasis of serenity in a picture that's filled with movement. And you've got the wildest wave at the upper-left-third interesection contrasting with the quiet bird in the lower-right-third box.

The "What the...?" observation is very amusing. I'm sure he'll be contemplating until the next wave bowls him over (gotta be a boy bird if he's mesmerized by underwater sand patterns).

Lovely photo.

Don

This is the Rule of Thirds in action on the uncropped picture. A small amount of sky cropping would divide it into perfect segments...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/birdinblue2.jpg

[slejhamer]

Well, folks, I ended up leaning towards Don's rule of thirds and came up with the following. (A bit of photoshop work, but I'm no purist... :) )

Henk - I tried flipping the bird but it caused too much of a change in the background, believe it or not. The blue tone around him shifts very subtly from left to right, which became very obvious when it was flipped. I didn't feel like putting too much work into correcting it, so he's back the way he was.

Thanks for your suggestions.

http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/birdinblue2.jpg

[dn7elson]

I liked the other sky coloration better. This has taken on a bit of an unnatural "bubble gum" coloration, IMHO.

[slejhamer]

Thanks Dale. The sky got very washed out when I toned up the rest of the image, and the above version is after I increased saturation already... it started to get speckled so I stopped. I will overlay a saturation mask before I print; that should do the trick. Appreciate your comment.

P.S. Where are you in NoVa? Any favorite shooting spots? I'm in Vienna; haven't lived here long and am in search of great locations. Tx,

[dn7elson]

Reston...nearly in your back yard ;)

I too, have spent a bit of time at the Meadowlark Gardens. Great place for flower and unusual plant shots.

Monuments and tidal pools in DC not a bad place to photograph. I shot a bunch at cherry blossom time with my G2 this year.