steven_f1

The me the best phoos are ones with few individula elements. One gets the viewer attention and then the eye is drawn to the other elements. This photo does it beautifully. Sometime my eye goes straight to the walker. Other times it goes to the treess. The ellements are all ballanced. The lack of color also helps in my opinion. Yet it isn't a black and white photo so what little color there also adds to the photos quality.

Cliche? I don't think so. In the photoclub I attend I have not seen anything quite like it. Also may first time photographer tend to try and get more into a photo. This has less. The exposure is deliberately set to make the trees black. Many people woud try and brighten them and the forground with a longer exposure. It is a simple photo to make but composition is outstanding.

In terms of framming my initiall thought was that I would like to see a little bit more of the top of the center tree. But that would make the waker smaller. I also considered that multiple pictures stiched together to create a panorama or narrow vertical might make it better. However overall I don't think any of those would work.

Congradulations on a very good photo.

In terms of exposure and composition this is a very good picture. However if you look carefully at the rocks in the background you will see sharpening artifacts. Most sharpening programs increase the apparent sharpness of a photo by lightening one side of a line and darkening the other side. They don't actually make a sharper line, they increase the contrast around the line.

When magnified you will see a pure white line between the sky and the rocks. If this were made into a larger print the line would be easily visible. However once you know what to look for, it is easy to spot in smaller images. Reducing the sharpening just a little bit would elliminate the artifacts.

The Wings are not correct. The back two are copies of the first 2. The wing sequence is back, front, back, front. It should be back, front, front, back. Additionally, based on the position of the body, only 2 wings should be visible in the picture. Not 4.

The only complaint I have about this image is name and copyright in the lower right. In my mind it is just a little to close to the main point of interest which is the wing hitting the water. Also it looks like the text was over sharpened which I also find distracting. All that said I understand why you put the copyright on it. Overall, It's a Keeper!

For the others, you can often see very still water in the early morning when the wind is typically at its calmest. The camera is pointed down very slightly so all of the background is water. Given the size of the bird and lens used most of the background is also out of focus. A smooth out of focus water background gives it a very smooth look. The really hard part about this shot is spending the time to wait for bird and to have the skill needed to quickly respond to get the shot.

PS: I also appreciate all the detail you put into the details page. Although I would cut it down to lens, camera, shutter, aperture, and iso. I find this information helpful in understanding what was done at the time the picture was taken. Often I don't see that. Thanks.

Good composition. The birds head is turned just right to make it obvious. Overall a good photo. However I can see some evidence of sharpening artifacts around the branches. These would be more noticable in a large print. I would recommend reducing the sharpening just a little to elliminate the artifacts

I have to shake my head when I read that "Post processing is necessary to get good photos." My own experience has told me that is not the case. Based on what has been posted about Martin and this photo and others he has on photo.net it should be clear anyone that post processing is not necessary to get good to excellent results.

To get good result it has become clear to me that putting some effort into it before the photo is taken is the key. Martin has clearly learned when (early in the morning in the fall) is the best time to take macros of insects. He also has trained his eyes to notice the small details most of us overlook every day. He has clearly learned how to get the most out of his camera and lenses. All of his photos I have see are as sharp as it can get. Post sharpening would probably not have done much. While I disagree with him on the ethics of cropping, I don't think it would have done anything for this photo or many of his others and I respect his decision.

Martin, I wish I was as good as you!

Nice image but there are a couple of thing bothering me. The water on the right side of the photo is flowing to the right. The water on the left appears to be flowing into or out of the cliff. There are also sharp diagnal lines in the water on the left that doesn't look natural and possibly a vertical seam it the lower center of the water. Some of the lower pinnicals just to the right of center also appear to be faded. Was this Photoshopped?

Amazing. I have been trying to get the same shot in the last couple of days, and in Fremont no less. Humming birds are easy to get compared to Tree Swallows.

 

I suspect this shot was taken in Coyote Hills Regional park in Fremont Ca. There are a number of bird houses next to a marsh. This bird is probably about to land on one (probably just of the left of the image). The camera was probably manually focused and the image cropped. I would be interested to know what the exposure was and if a flash was used. I haven't yet found a good shutter / aperature (depth of field) setting that has worked for me.