Little Pied Cormorant (4 pics)

[NikonUser]

Hi there,

Went out to Mornington again this afternoon in the hope of catching these guys in the golden afternoon light...

The tide was out (phew) but there was only ONE bird sat on a rock out in the water. I didn't hold my hopes up too high as I'm not usually good at stalking these guys with no cover...

...So I got down low and started edging my way slowly towards him. He was a bit wary so it was slow going. 45 minutes and a very painful crouch/crawl later I got to spend about an hour just sitting with him and taking photos. Even if I didn't get any keepers I would have been happy.. it was just me and him out there.

I'd really love some comments on these regarding composition and colour (read: saturation... my nemisis!!)









Thanks for looking

Paul

[Sir Tristram]

Love em all. Sharp and great colours.. Did you use a better beamer?

Great shots.

[NikonUser]

Yup I used a better beamer.

All shots where with:

D2x, 500 f4, 1.4x TC, SB-800, Better Beamer. Pretty much full frame.

When the 500 goes on the camera with the flash the better beamer is pretty much a certainty

Paul

[stubbsy]

Paul these all look spot on colour wise to me. They're also very nicely composed and have lovely bokeh (70-200?). If I was to pick a favourite I'd go for #2 because of the angle of the bird and the golden light from the sun.

[birddog114]

Paul these all look spot on colour wise to me. They're also very nicely composed and have lovely bokeh (70-200?). If I was to pick a favourite I'd go for #2 because of the angle of the bird and the golden light from the sun.

It's a 500/ f4.

[NikonUser]

Paul these all look spot on colour wise to me. They're also very nicely composed and have lovely bokeh (70-200?). If I was to pick a favourite I'd go for #2 because of the angle of the bird and the golden light from the sun.

This one is probably a little better positioned than #2 above. Doesn't look as skinny:


Paul

[Bodak]

I like the colour and composition in all of them with 1 and 2 being the prefered out of the four.
Well done.

[avkomp]

now you're talking.

some great stuff here.
1 is my favourite though
well done.

steve

[NikonUser]

I've been playing with the last one I posed in LAB colour: Any opinions?



EDIT: My third and final (for now) play:


Paul

[Finch]

G'day Paul,

Firstly, great Corrmorant shots. My faves are 1 and 3. Nice to see you have the saturation-thingy sorted (quite a few of your recent postings have come up over-sat, as you know, but these are spot-on)

Re. the choice of 1st pic or 2nd with Lab colour, there is no question that the first looks more natural. Others may like the second one but it looks like it has been worked on, whereas the 1st one is as you see these birds in the wild.

Cheers

Michael

[NikonUser]

Thanks Finch,

I think my main problem with oversaturation is with greens. I'm working on ways around it though (using peoples opinions on here to determine what's 'acceptable')

I actually think the second pic is closer to the actual scene with the LAB colours... it's slightly more than reality but not by much. The sun was right on the horizon and there was thin cloud cover that made for a VERY orange sky. Will keep playing and see if I can get it spot on.

Paul