Eared Grebe Male Portrait

[Amol Khedgikar]

Hi All,

Here is an image from a series I had forgotten about. Dallas is not known for its birds. But once in a while we get some "exotic" species like these.

This was shot in extremely bad weather and ever changing light, One moment it would be harsh and bright sunny the next it would almost as dark as at night. These grebes were uncooperative at first but I played a call on my cell phone and the scene changed completely. The moment they heard the call they swam rapidly towards us. without giving us much chance of getting off some shots. they were withing out minimum focusing distance in no time and we just had to take a break and watch them so close to us almost pecking on the lenses.

It was a great morning with very bad weather. Hope you all like it.

C&C requested, welcome and appreciated as always.

The subject was too big in the original frame so added a lot of canvas on top and right. Some levels and sharpening and NR in NIK.

7D+500mm f4, ISO 640, 1/400, F8,

131886

[Matthew Studebaker]

fantastic colors and detail. the low shooting angle was perfect as well.

[Bill Dix]

This is gorgeous. Love the low POV, the comp, and the eye.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the texture on the feathers along the neck, and the eye looks great. I'd apply less sharpening on the golden feathers of the head. Awesome dof, the body is blurred just enough behind the sharp face and neck. Good job with the canvas extension, the comp feels well balanced...there is a slight seem along the bright wavelets at right though that should be easy to fix. Too bad there was such large bright patches of water in the FG...

[hennieloots]

Lovely image. Beautiful details.

[Amol Khedgikar]

I love the texture on the feathers along the neck, and the eye looks great. I'd apply less sharpening on the golden feathers of the head. Awesome dof, the body is blurred just enough behind the sharp face and neck. Good job with the canvas extension, the comp feels well balanced...there is a slight seem along the bright wavelets at right though that should be easy to fix. Too bad there was such large bright patches of water in the FG...


Dan You caught the seam pretty well. It had skipped my eye. Couldnt do much about the bright water spot other than toning it down a little. I tried to clone it out but didnt get a good canvas to copy from. I will try again.

Thank you all for stopping by and commenting.

[Loi Nguyen]

Amol, lovely image, good comp, nice low shooting angle, great details. My first initial reaction regarding the sharpness was that it looks just a little bit oversharpened, so I'm with Daniel here. Well done. Loi

[nrohrbacker]

Amol, nice detail and as others have said the eye really makes it. Smooth BG makes it pop. Always nice to get a rarer bird every now and again (at least for your area, and mine!)

[Melissa Groo]

You did wonderfully considering the light challenges. I love your low angle, the colors, and the detail you have here. I would agree on backing off the sharpening a tad. But overall super work.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love shooting Grebes and cant wait for the winter to put on my waders and get back out there when they pass thru Florida. I have never seen one of these though. Overall I like this image a lot and the color of the water and detail you captured are great. I'm with the others on the sharpening issue on the fine feathers as it seems to create some harshness there.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Amol,

Great job of being patient and waiting for the right light ... it paid off! Nailed the focus, and I love the low angle.

I might take a look at a 16:9 crop, with a little less room on the bottom and a bit more on top.

Miguel

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular image. Beautiful golden feathers and red eye. Love it.

Regards,
Satish.

[gail bisson]

This is the best image you have posted I think!
Love the IQ and the POV,
Well done,
Gail

[mohammad reza shahab]

Great low shooting angle and BG.perfect colors and detail.
Well done.

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image Amol, great level and amazing details
nice to add the canvas looks nicely balanced, the white patch in front may be fixed a bit in PP i guess.
Over all a splendid image for the bird IQ is amazing