Mountain Ghost

Gallery: AvianPosted March 11, 2011150 views7 comments

Another kea shot from Aoraki/Mt Cook NP, New Zealand. It was before the sunrise and a group of kea where having fun in the wind while I was trying to capture some silhouettes. I really like the gloomy chaotic mood of this capture and the impression of kea running up the hill but I'm not so sure about the composition. It's already cropped from the left and the top. I'm considering cropping more from the left but didn't want to cut through that snow patch.

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 55-250@74mm f5 1/800s ISO800

Any comments, suggestions?
Thanks for looking!

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 11, 2011 at 1:02 AM

Very unusual image Andrius, and I like it a lot, especially the suggestion of it running up hill :^)

Due to the patch of snow on the left I can understand why this is would be a hard decision whether to crop more from the left, and really not sure what I'd do in this case. The one thing I think I would attempt, would be to either desaturate the image some or increase the black levels, as something tells me more of a silhouette effect would give this picture even more impact ... although of course I could well be wrong, as I so often am ;^)

All the best :^)

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by John Blumenkamp on March 11, 2011 at 7:59 AM

I like this Andrus... different and unique. If mine I might play with cropping a little more along the top to give that left to right effect of the distant ridge line more definition. One other thought is it may have been interesting to see the bird clear of the ridge line and isolated against the sky? Just thinking out loud here.

Registered on February 26, 2011, 58 Posts, 313 Comments

Comment posted by richard remington on March 11, 2011 at 8:35 AM

Andrius,

Very interesting image. It lloks like the picture was taken underwater with the bird laying on a glass shelf on the surface. That is honestly what I thought I was looking at. Great Capture!

Rick

Registered on March 12, 2010, 105 Posts, 368 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 11, 2011 at 2:46 PM

I like everything about this shot, the mood and colors, the positioning of the bird just at ridge line all works for me, very creative. It would of been nice to not have the bird in the center and go with the left to right placement as you mentioned but if the cropping compromise enough of the image to where you do not like it, I would just leave it as is, well done.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 11, 2011 at 10:57 PM

A very cool and unique image Andrius, great work. Even before I read your post I was thinking the same thing you were, do you crop the area on the left to move it out of dead center in the frame or not. I could go either way as you said it would be a shame to lose any of the mountainous scenery but in some respects it would improve the comp. Anyway, a great out of the box image.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on March 12, 2011 at 4:50 AM

Thanks for all your feedback. I'm really glad you guys like it. I feel like there is something special about this picture and wondering if other people would feel the same. I'll play around with cropping some more. Rick, a very interesting interpretation you got there

. I think I see what you mean now. Ashley, I will try out your suggestion of desaturating a little bit, although I do love those blue tones.

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on March 12, 2011 at 10:10 PM

I like it very much as is Andrius. I like the centered bird in the composition. Our ravens are behaving similarly at this time of year.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments