Motif:Anhinga

Hey Brian

Love the color of the water and the pose of the bird. I'm not sure if the little bit of land is helping or hurting the image. Still, a great photo.

This is cool, Brian. The color of the water is great. I would crop the top down to just below the dark line. IMHO, that would strengthen the composition.

Very nice.

Great colors, and I like the position of the bird. I scrolled down to evaluate Bill's crop suggestion and I think it strengthens the image.

I have not spend a lot of time around Anhingas, but this one kind of looks like a Cormorant.

Hi Brian. I love the Halloweeny colors of this shot and the way the bird is looking into the distance. I also really like Bill's suggested crop. Looking forward to seeing more!

Here is a crop of the photo with Bills suggestion. It looks better without all the extra space above it. What do you think?

Carl, I tried to crop the rock out on the right, but that puts the bird way to close to the edge. It looked really unbalanced.

Heather, you may be right! looking at the shape of the head, it may be a Cormorant

Thanks to all who have commented.

Brian:


You say "All comments appreciated" so here goes:

I see two main problems with this.

1. The dark ripples in the water break up the outline of the bird and also lower the subject/background contrast so that the bird does not stand out clearly, (notice how the head detail gets lost). As a result, the image loses impact..

2. The high shooting angle also cuts impact by making the bird seem less significant than it would be if we weren't "looking down on it".

Your repost alleviates these problems to a degree, but I feel the image still lacks the strong, dramatic effect we look for in a silhouette.

If that piece of dry land bothers you, it would be easy enough to clone out.

aj

I like the colors and the birds silhouette. My wish would be for the land to not be there.