Painting the Water's Edge

[Brian Sump]

• Brian Sump Photography
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.5 (Macintosh)

Here, an American Avocet cruising in to the nesting site with some reeds off in the distance.

R5
600mm
Handheld
ISO 1250
1/6400
f7.1

LR and PS.

 

[Dorian Anderson]

This is great. You gotta love the warm light and cracking colors! Lovely pose and composition. I particularly like the trailing feet. Excellent exposure and details; that's not an easy task on these high contrast birds in bright sun. This is one I'd love to have in my shorebird collection.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Cool flight shot Brian, with excellent sharpness. Whites are there but some are just on the bright side, but I'm just not a fan of the Blacks/Contrast and that's me, I never will as you know, but I assume if you are using Lr then it stems from the profile Adobe Color?


The backdrop is quite vivid, does it perhaps competes with the bird, but you were there, just throwing it into the ring???? One thing is how the water blends into the Reeds (?) so there's no line of separation/distinction, I can only assume it's of a greater distance??

Overall a lovely capture Brian.

TFS
Steve

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is rather beautiful. Perfect exposure and great colours. I like the pose as well.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian ... this image just take your signs on the whole front :bg3:

Vivid colors , strong contrast , nice comp , nice pose of the subject and the sharpness looks good as well .

Overall i do like it a lot , but would personally temper the overall saturation and the strong dark tones a fraction .... just a different taste :bg3:

Wish I could get that good flight shots ... tried to shoot avocets here in Europe some weeks ago , did not even get close them :bg3:

Nice one and TFS Andreas

 

[Colin Driscoll]

A shot to really appreciate, lovely.

 

[Brian Sump]

Appreciate the feedback y'all!

Steve - no bkg manipulation here. The subject is below the waterline here (I cropped it just below), but even then it was not super pronounced. But yes, he was probably 40-50 yards from the shoreline here.

Agreed though, I do like a little color punch and maybe a touch more contrast at times. Can see a version pulled back a touch.