At four in the morning (Faron Young time) I could not sleep and decided to tiptoe down to the study to look at a few more print candidates. Here are two. One I am sure I shall print, the other I am still undecided. Here is the “yes” vote.
And here is the “undecided”, a skua on a rock!
Feedback welcome but not mandatory!
And a third image, not for printing but I wanted to show it as an excellent example of camouflage.
If you see these birds against a plain background they look highly visible. Put them on a pebbled beach however and suddenly they become part of the surroundings, blending perfectly with the shingle, weed and water. There were about half a dozen birds on the beach when I took this and from a distance it was hard to pick them out unless they moved. This is cropped slightly so you can see the bird a little better but in a large frame it stands out a lot less.
Oh and in case you didn’t recognise it, the bird is Southern Lapwing, Vanellus chilensis. Half way through the week folks. Hang in there.
“Li-dul thangs you say and do…make me whant to be with yoo-hoo-hoo…”. Some of us recognised the immortal Buddy Holly immediately.
Do you remember the infamous strike at the Grunwick film processing plant in the late 1970s? A cartoon of the time had the caption “Someday my prints will come…”
Anyhow, there’s more going on in the B&W one, I agree with you.
Ah yes, I remember it well. The Kodak song :-). Happy days.
The top image is stunning and will make a great print. I’m afraid the second image might turn out like one of mine, very similar to yours in composition but with a pelican. Once printed, there was something slightly amiss. Jut my 5 cents’ worth, of course…
(but if it’s not expensive to do so, do have it printed. i’ve found that photographs are good at hiding surprises, and sometimes very nice ones.)
The b and w is certainly very dramatic. But I also like the purity of the blue with Skua. I guess it depends upon what you will do with the prints once printed. Are they to be nailed to a wall and passed by each day – or put away and brought out once in a while? Or kept on hand for a one-man-show (has that been changed to one-artist-show now? probably should be).
During my painting years I sometimes used the old ‘look at in a mirror’ trick. Something about looking at an image in reverse through a mirror gives a new perspective and we see the object anew. Sometimes I looked in the mirror and said “well that’s odd” but then realized it was only me.
I really admire your eye for detail and integrity as an artist photographer. I lament for Mrs Ma.
Thanks Rod. The blue in the skua shot was relatively easy to get. In the original file it looks washed out. I did a quick select of the sky and applied a curves adjustment layer to darken it. It worked better than I expected but lacks any real contrast. To be honest I am not sure what I shall do with them! Certainly hang a few but not too many. I will try the mirror trick and see what perspective I get. I really appreciate the suggestions.
Whinge, whinge, gripe, gripe. I find it really difficult to tell the difference between a decent pic and a great pic when they aren’t blowupable (like a bouncy castle or whatever).
I like the composition of the top one but only you will know how it looks on a larger scale. Do hope you have checked for invisible imperfections.
There is something about the skua pic that is atmospheric. A bit like the KG pic, it depends whether you are capturing the moment and the environment or want to focus on the bird. I have to say Ms Cropaholic would be interested to see a cropped version.
The lapwing is beautiful, you have to admire camouflage. I have a rather nice camo jacket (desert DPMs from an army mate) and some rather worn-out camo leggings from Zara.
I don’t think it’s a toss up for the best one here. The black and white clearly is the one to print. It is outstanding and I have already commented on it over Flickr way. The monotone is dramatic and to me has all the qualities of what a great framed photo should look like.
Thans Yvonne. I have had some good advice on how to make it even better by making the whites brighter and increasing contrast. It is still work in progress therefore!