Coot

I like this one a great deal, Ian! I don't have any suggestions to improve on this. Well done!

Ian,
Can't think of a way to make this better. Very nice water color and background color. Very mystical looking image....almost dreamy. I don't know if anything can be done about the blown whites but it almost doesn't even matter. If you shoot coots your likely to blow the whites if you want details in the blacks. Very nice image Ian.

Thanks all

David

I don't know if anything can be done about the blown whites

Very interesting! They aren't blown in the original or the JPeg I saved, but are showing as blown after posting - probably a web thing?

Ian, I agree with the whites needing to be toned down, but for me I can't stop looking at the stick thing to the right of the bird. I just wish it wasn't so distracting. Otherwise, I really like it.

I think some off the bottom of this one would help...the reflection just isn't strong enough imo to leave it. As always, I love your low perspective and colors. Sharon

Great low angle and I like the BG. I like the reflection. I would consider cropping the top to get the horizon out of the middle. I would be tempted to try and clone out the twig/stick to create a cleaner, more homogenous background. But great just as is.

Beautiful, Ian. I like the eye and the two slanted pieces of vegetation in the bg.

Great light here Ian. The smooth foreground and background combined with the eye level presentation makes this one special. Those stalks of grass to the right really keep this image from going to the next level. But that is just my opinion for what it's worth. The whites of the bill are bright but it doesn't seem to be an issue to me. Whites are always a difficult issue as they can technically not be blown but bright to a point where there is no detail. I deal with that all the time with Egrets. I just have a tendancy to underexpose a little. That allows some room for processing. Coots are very difficult to expose perfectly because of the white/black issues. The lower the light the better.
Ronnie

Ian

The golds, low angle, pose, and exposure are all beautiful. I actually like the interest those stalks of grass in the background, they add a bit of tension to the silkiness. This is lovely

Love the elongated reflection Ian

cheers
Rob