-- Les Saucier (skincamp@skybest.com), February 03, 1999

Answers

This talks to me. Very artful. I can find nothing to critisize in this image. OK the feet are cut off, but they should be in this image. It's not just a spieces portrait, it's good photography. Beautiful!

-- Fredrik Mvrk (fmork@yahoo.com), February 03, 1999.

Wonderful! The pose evokes an emotional intrigue which you captured well. My only picks(we'll see if the others agree?) are the cyan cast that appears present(maybe heavy fog or moisture?) and no catchlight to make the eye pop out. I really like the way the back feathers curve into the image.

-- Robert McCabe (rbmccabe@home.com), February 03, 1999.

Elegant. I would not change a thing. Feathers dancing in the wind seem to add the touch of grace and beauty to this image.

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooks@mindspring.com), February 03, 1999.

I love it!

Can you tell us how & where?

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), February 03, 1999.

Oh...this is almost ethereal. The chopped legs don't bother me as much as the cropped back of the bird. Love the feathers blowing into the frame! please give us more details on this image...location, exposure, equipment and cropping if any.

-- Bhaskar Thiagarajan (bhaskart@hotmail.com), February 03, 1999.

This is excellent work. I just wish there was a tad more light in the eye.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), February 03, 1999.

Several of you have asked for the particulars of this photo. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you the story. Several of my friends let me tag along when they spend a week in Sanibel,FL each year. We always stay at the "Castaways", cottage units just south of the bridge between Sanibel and Captiva. The beauty of the Castaways is that not only are they very reasonable priced compared to the rest of the island but they are in a great location. You have the Gulf out the front door and the bay out the back door. After a hard long day photographing the Ding Darling Loop, we come home and photograph some more. We either shoot the sunset on the beach, the big birds on the dock or the otters under the bridge. It seems that the birds gather each day on the dock to watch the fisherman clean their catch and beg for tid bits. So that is the setting for this image. A 500mm in one hand (although a 300mm would have worked) and a refreshing beverage in the other, sun setting behind me, and the big bird waiting patiently to clean up the fishermen's scrapes. The exposure was metered off the white feathers and opened up two stops. I'm embarrassed because the hardest part is deciding which beverage to put in the other hand. I have several shots with the setting sun illuminating golden light on this great egret with catch light in the eye. But unfortunately no shots with both golden light and the wind blown plumes. I guess too much refreshing beverage. The background is just the washed-out sky opposite the setting sun. Sorry to be so verbose but the Castaways is a special place for nature photographers.

-- Les Saucier (skincamp@skybest.com), February 03, 1999.

The somewhat unusual framing go perfectly with the subject and the pose. The curving wispy feathers add greatly to the shot. Good work!

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), February 04, 1999.

Les, This is simply beautiful! I like the simple but bold shape of the bird against the stark white background and the wisps of feathers sweeping into the frame. I like the stance of the bird and how you've framed it. Very artful and elegant, as some of the others have said. Great shot!

-- Barbara Kelly (kellys@alaska.net), February 18, 1999.

The beauty I see here are the numerous lines. Very nice photo.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), March 16, 1999.