Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by kernuak:
Thanks to everyone who commented or voted. I wasn't expecting a high score, but had hoped for more than it acheived. The grebes were right at the limit of the lens, requiring heavy cropping, wildlife doesn't like to play ball at short notice, so it was never going to be as good as I would have liked it to have been. They were well out of the range of the shutter sound though, as they were upwind and in was in a permanent hide, so any sound would have been carried away, plus they came closer for me to take standard portrait shots. I didn't want to crop too tightly, as I wanted to keep the splashes in for some context, I couldn't show much of their environment in the position they were (unlike the previous weekend), but at least I could show that.

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by MaryO:
Are they dancing with seaweed? They look annoyed that someone is interrupting them.

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by jccminty:
Needs a tighter crop.

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by SaraR:
What a wonderful photo - I have longed to capture the Grebe's mating ritual.

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by caseycody:
Sharp Shot!

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by Damzel:
??

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by lobomom:
very nice action shot!

Dance of the Grebes
by kernuak

Comment by basssman7:
amazing shot. These little guys are tough to get a shot of, let alone a great one like this.

Not voting on this challenge though.

Fire and Water
by kernuak

Comment by kernuak:
Thanks to all the commenters and to those who voted, I was pretty happy to end in the top 40% in my second challenge. A couple of things I missed out in me description above, the reverse grad was a three stop and I also used a warming circular polariser to cut down unwanted reflections, and to maintain the reds that are normally diminished by a standard polariser. After reading some of the earlier comments regarding sharpness and contrast, I went back and had a go at reprocessing (at the time I only had Elements 5 to work with after Photomatix Pro was used), with Lightroom/CS4, in addtition to the latest version of Photomatix, but I didn't like the results, partly because it enhanced the chromatic aberration that had largely been removed and partly because of haloing. I've since read some of the ideas to remove the haloing effect in the forums, so it's something I can have a go at when I have some time. So, while I didn't necessarily agree with the comments, it did force me to revisit, which is always a good thing to do.

Message edited by author 2009-03-18 17:27:11.

Fire and Water
by kernuak

Comment by tmorninglory96:
This is a beautiful picture, but I think the colors could have been deeper on the rocks, just a little darker to make them pop.