Geese, God and a Radial Blur

So I was off just a little bit on the title; I could not help but pick up on several of the comments from yesterday. Amongst all of the recent animosity, it is great that we can still retain our humor. Following on from my post of yesterday, this is a more artful modification of the same image. To get this I applied a radial blur near the center of the mass of the birds, then used a Wacom tablet and pen (pen pressure was set to generate various levels of restoration) to restore sharpness of various geese; lots of other steps but this will give you the general theme. Using the radial blur, the center of the blur is less blurred than the edges. The further out you get from the center, the more pronounced the blur. I had fun doing this and learned a great deal. For the anal engineer in me, this was a serious departure from the norm. I guess you could call it "Discovery Learning".

Comments?

P.S. This looks very strong when blown to 16x20.

See yesterday's post for camera and shooting details.

How to say...I would rather to have the background tune to B/W..
It can't catch my attention as the color of the photo is too plain for me..blue & white only..

Randy, I hate to say negative things of my take on peoples photos, however this one leaves me guessing as to why you desired so much processing. The geese can make for a great scene and are wonderful birds to watch, but the BG is too busy and the placement of the steeple and its lack of contrast to the birds makes it difficult for my eyes to separate them. Compared to many of your other photos on this subject, I find this one to be my least favorite.

The effect that I was trying for was to generate a true feeling of motion rather than just a snapshot of something in motion. I was also trying out some new PS skills that I will be using for a future project in Hawaii with surfers. The people I show this to, generally like it, with a few being simply all over it. That could be because when I show it, I do so in a 16x20 format.

Nonetheless, thanks for your comments.

Randy