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.
All downhill from here 
“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!