White Ibis, St. Marks NWR

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White Ibis (immature), St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. N70, sigma 400, sensia 100, a bit foggy. Taken a few minutes after my recent post "perch tree"



-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), February 08, 1999

Answers

A very nice photograph. My only minor concern is that there are a few blades of grass on the left hand of the photo which are distracting to me.

-- Nick Stevens (nickstevens@hotmail.com), February 08, 1999.

My only thought is that this shot would have come alive a little more with some fill flash. Not knowing how much distance (and fog) there was between you and the camera, this might not have been viable. Portrait composition is nice, if not exciting.

-- Jim Korczak (korczaks@ptdprolog.net), February 08, 1999.

Nice image Larry. Really like the pose and the nice background the out-of-focus grass forms. If it had been possible a bit of fill would have separated the subject from the background better.

-- Micheal F. Kelly (Kellys@Alaska.net), February 09, 1999.

Very nice pose and composition. Shows the watchful bird in its habitat. The soft grass makes a good background.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), February 09, 1999.

Larry,

Separation between bird and background (which is lovely) looks fine to me. Aside from perhaps adding a catchlight in the eye, which would be a very minor addition in this photograph, I don't think fill flash would do much at all, and if improperly used, could overpower the soft natural light and spoil the overall feel of this shot. I think its great just the way it is.

Peter

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), February 09, 1999.



Very nice indeed. I would consider shooting a vertical shot in this situation, hard to say which is better though.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), February 09, 1999.

Thanks for taking time to comment. In the slide the ibis has a hint of foggy glisten that didn't make it thru the digitization process. I still like the bird, but it's not a rare bird doing anything particularly interesting. It's was the texture and colors of the foggy salt marsh that attracted me to the image. My main reason for posting was to see if background "mood" was felt by others. Fill flash is a good suggestion, but in nature photography it requires skills beyond mine to successfully walk the line between improvement and making the image look artificial.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), February 09, 1999.

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