Low Liftoff

[Brian Sump]

• Brian Sump Photography
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.0.1 (Macintosh)

Duck season is livening up on the river.

Spent some time watching this Goldeneye drake feed and he slowly worked toward me. I positioned myself at the bank handholding the camera down in front of me at the waters edge shooting low shots with the R5 external screen folded out - my normal technique.

He stuck his head up as if getting ready to leave and I was able to track him taking off for a few frames while looking down into the screen, which is certainly not easy. Admittedly, it was not the crispest flight file as I was battling some temperature inversion with the water around 40 degrees and air temp about 15.

R5
840mm
Handheld
ISO 2000
1/4000
f5.6

LR and PS. Added a sliver right, nothing else cloned or added.

NOTE - suspecting some may comment on rotation, I used the two darker, thin brown lines just above the foot reflection to measure level.

 

[William Dickson]

Looking good Brian....Great POV and well done on getting this with the external screen....I've been photographing them for years and I know how fast they are....Lovely detail and the colours look spot on here...The raised foot adds a lot....Nice BG colours...The only thing I would have a look at changing is adding some contrast to the far wing...Before I came on here, I was standing on my balcony...it is dark here just now and the only natural light is the moon....And I could hear Goldeneye flying in and out of the harbour....Once heard never forgotten... :S3: .

Well done

Will

 

[Paul Burdett]

Looks good to me too Brian. Dynamic pose ready for takeoff! Agree with William's comments, although the far wing looks fine to me. TFS

 

[John Mack]

Quite a nice take off frame. Like that the near foot is raised. Great background. The splashing water is another bonus.

 

[Brian Sump]

Appreciate you guys.

Will, I like the suggestion for the far wing.

 

[arash_hazeghi]

nice dynamic frame Brian complemented nicely by the water drops and the paddling foot. I am looking forward to the winter duck season here too

TFS

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice overall here Brian! I love the raised foot form the running motion. The sharpening more than overcame the air shimmer you experienced - at least as viewed on the web. I once photographed a 20 minute session of a goldeneye struggling to swallow a huge Mudpuppy...only to find that ALL of the images were ruined by this phenomenon, which I had not noticed while the action was taking place. It was just too much to recover.

 

[Arthur Morris]

Luscious! In addition to all the positive comments above, I love the soft light for these high contrast subjects. Head angle perfect and head is gorgeous! Skill level approaching astronomical!
with love, artie

 

[Brian Sump]

nice dynamic frame Brian complemented nicely by the water drops and the paddling foot. I am looking forward to the winter duck season here too

TFS

Thanks Arash. We're getting a much denser collection of species by this time than we were last year. I think it's gonna be a fun winter! Look forward to seeing some from you.

Nice overall here Brian! I love the raised foot form the running motion. The sharpening more than overcame the air shimmer you experienced - at least as viewed on the web. I once photographed a 20 minute session of a goldeneye struggling to swallow a huge Mudpuppy...only to find that ALL of the images were ruined by this phenomenon, which I had not noticed while the action was taking place. It was just too much to recover.

Thanks Daniel. It happens SO often here, and many of my friends at sea level hardly ever experience it. Not sure if it's because of the intense sun at 6000 ft, the thin air density, or what. So frustrating though.

Luscious! In addition to all the positive comments above, I love the soft light for these high contrast subjects. Head angle perfect and head is gorgeous! Skill level approaching astronomical!
with love, artie

So kind Artie, thank you!

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian ... what's not to like here !!!
Very cool shot and the 20 FPS helped a lot I think to capture the right moment , I really understand the " problems " when shooting the way you took the shots with the flipped back screen. I am struggling myself to work that way ..... but it is somewhat easier when compared using the angle viewfinder on a DSLR .
Glad you mentioned the " haze issues " otherwise I would have said well I wish for more critical sharpness , very interesting to see motion blur in the water splash at 1/4000 sec .

Processing look very good to me , Amigo . The soft light really helped here to control the whole tonal range .

Just a lovely frame .... nothing else expected from my side :w3

TFS Andreas