Beautifully Ugly

Brian,
This is a great shot, however I do wish there was a little more head room. I'm sure you could clone in some background in the top of the frame (and the very bottom) and this would work even better.

Wayne

Great shot Brian, love the reflection of the stork & the clouds in the still water. I would agree a bit more room would be nice.

An intriguing image - almost surreal from the reflected sky. I like most things about this image and I appreciate that you included the large version with your post.

A few issues:

1. it would be nice to see the exif and other shooting parameters (focal length, cropped or not, etc.).
2. I wish this wasn't so tight on top and bottom. More space would enhance the mood here IMO.
3. I'd adjust he white balance to warm this up. The body of the stork has a strong blue bias which I assume is from being in a shaded area. If you are worried about loosing some of the "magic" of the sky reflection by warming up the image you could do the adjustment selectively on just the stork.

wonderful image with the great reflection, I agree with whats been said however about the need for more space around the head, nicely done though

Nits mentioned and Richard gave you some great advice, esp regarding the blue tint on the bird. The water and sky reflection here is fabulous and this could be a great image with just a little work. Got me longing for blue skies and warm water! Sharon

Thanks for the comments, they are very much appreciated.

Richard, the techs are:
canon 40D
100-400 L @100
1/320 @f6.3
ISO 400
fill flash, tripod, kneepads, etc.

This is full frame, no crop. If I had cropped, I could recover some of the tighness, but I guess I have to learn how to add BG in Ps. I tried to warm up the image globally, but the reflections lost ground. Can anyone direct me to an easy tutorial on how to warm up the bird while keeping the BG intact?

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback,

Brian

Brian, very nice image of the stork and of course the bg is killer. This may have benefited from a vertical shoot instead of the horizontal. But in any case it's lovely.
To warm the subject and not the bg, you could make a mask in PS.

Great comp. and beautiful cloud reflected water. Adjusting the nits mentioned adding a tad more room top and bottom would really add to this shot.

I like this effect very much Brian. Like several others have said a little more space would be nice.

It's a beautiful image but a little tight, either backing up a bit or going vertical would have put this over the top and made it fantastic.

Thanks for the exif.

I've sent you a private email with some guidance on warming up just the stork.

Lovely image Brain - I like the reflected bird and sky.

This is a fabulous shot, Brian, it almost looks unreal! I agree it would benefit greatly with a little more headroom, though.

Great reflection Brian and nice job on the whites which I often blow out.

Wonderful tonality to this image and great job on the composition, would have been nice to have some more space top and bottom as others have said but still a very good image, nice work. Great to see the larger version.

Brian,

I agree with the comments made on the composition, more space all around would have truly been wonderful. I love the sky reflected on the water but agree with Rich that the bird could be warmed up some.