My woodland pondhide is one of the places where the Hawfich comes for a drink. They come and go and it's hard to tell when they show up. So most of the time it's a long wait but this time it was just 15 minutes.
Lucky me
iso 200 1/60 sec. F5.6
Edwin Kats
Posted by Craig Jones on April 30, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Beautiful!!!! the light is lovely and so is the detail/reflection, very nice
Well Done
Posted by Lewis Thomson on April 30, 2009 at 4:40 PM
Beautiful shot Edwin! only nit from me is the cut off legs, they look a little odd disappearing behind the water level.
Sorry Edwin, although an excellent shot, it just work for me as a true N.H. image, which at a set-up it should. The Hawfinch is obviously standing in water, and the B.G. is vegetation, and for me, it needs a sympathetic feature, separating the two.
I know this is not a regular shot and I'm really interested in your thoughts about this. It's a bit of a try out.
Edwin Kats
Posted by John Robinson on April 30, 2009 at 5:23 PM
Hi Edwin
As you know most of my stuff is pool oriented. This looks a little "too" setup, and is somewhat more confusing by the way that birds legs appear in the water.
Don't get me wrong- a shot that would appeal to many people. Ypou know my views on reflections
Cheers
John
Posted by Ian Haskell on April 30, 2009 at 5:24 PM
Looks pretty good (then again I expect nothing else from you Edwin), different bird and different reflection - I think a lot of photographers are trying these shots... Nice light and tones throughout. The feather detail is slightly out of focus at the tail feathers, but the overall shot I feel makes up for this. There is a browny patch in the reflection to the right - where is this reflecting from? Beautiful creamy image output...probably one of the better reflection shots of this type.
This almost works Edwin, the bird appears to be on a ledge right at the back of the pool, I think the water needs to extend beyond where the birds perch to drink and a suitably photogenic rock, branch, mossy clump, whatever needs placing for the birds to land on; very nice all the same especially with it being a Hawfinch; and a really refreshing change from the usual stale old viewpoint.
I was talking to a Norwegian photographer just yesterday about how quickly images thesedays become 'tired'. This is a lovely shot and 3 years ago would have had us all green with envy but now different folk are exploring this technique (including me), it has lost some of the impact. It's no different to many other 'honeypot' images that are not given the recognition they perhaps deserve on an aesthetic level due to the number of photographers covering the same species/location.
The answer? I don't know in short. But the bar is set to get ever-higher so we better start thinking!
As for the hawfinch, I'd still be over the moon to have this in my archive.
Pete: You are right about this. It's done a million times and it would get a lot more comments when I did this 20 years ago:) But that's fine. It's not all about the comments. It's about having fun in the field.
I know the bar is set to a higher level and people are not easily
But I like that challenge and I'm always thinking about doing it a bit different but not always successful
Thank you all for you honest comments. It's really appreciated.
Allthough this has been done, ...what hasn't been done..?
There is so much that has been done allready but i think this image is great when you look at the light, reflection and colors. Then the Hawfinch is a species wich is not an everyday bird and is difficult to get a shot of with this quality.
So yes it has been done, but by few with this high quality.
In other words i like it..
Lucky you indeed. Cracking shot and i really like the bird surrounded by water rather than the usual on the edge of the pond shot. Cracking bird and so hard top photograph as well as this. Well done!
Discussion
15 repliesLucky me
iso 200 1/60 sec. F5.6
Edwin Kats
Well Done
Cheers,
Lewis.
As I said an excellent shot.
I know this is not a regular shot and I'm really interested in your thoughts about this. It's a bit of a try out.
Edwin Kats
As you know most of my stuff is pool oriented. This looks a little "too" setup, and is somewhat more confusing by the way that birds legs appear in the water.
Don't get me wrong- a shot that would appeal to many people. Ypou know my views on reflections
Cheers
John
Ian
I didn't notice the legs at first look but they become obvious after the initial impact.
Keep them coming. I am sure we will see more of these from you.
Cheers
Austin
I was talking to a Norwegian photographer just yesterday about how quickly images thesedays become 'tired'. This is a lovely shot and 3 years ago would have had us all green with envy but now different folk are exploring this technique (including me), it has lost some of the impact. It's no different to many other 'honeypot' images that are not given the recognition they perhaps deserve on an aesthetic level due to the number of photographers covering the same species/location.
The answer? I don't know in short. But the bar is set to get ever-higher so we better start thinking!
As for the hawfinch, I'd still be over the moon to have this in my archive.
Pete
Pete: You are right about this. It's done a million times and it would get a lot more comments when I did this 20 years ago:) But that's fine. It's not all about the comments. It's about having fun in the field.
I know the bar is set to a higher level and people are not easily
But I like that challenge and I'm always thinking about doing it a bit different but not always successful
Thank you all for you honest comments. It's really appreciated.
Edwin Kats
There is so much that has been done allready but i think this image is great when you look at the light, reflection and colors. Then the Hawfinch is a species wich is not an everyday bird and is difficult to get a shot of with this quality.
So yes it has been done, but by few with this high quality.
In other words i like it..
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Very nice indeed.