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I think the pose you captured is great. It really shows of the color nicely and creates some interesting shapes. For some reason I'm drawn to the small ruffled feathers on the back of the wings (above the head).

The first thing I noticed looking at the thumb was that the crop seems slightly uneven. It's a bit tight on the left. I assume this was done to center the head and body, but the small disparity in breathing room along the edges is bugging me a little.

Max

Bob,

Very nice photograph showing a unique pose and feather detail. I like the bright pink colors against the pale blue waters. The position in the frame is fine to my eye as the bird has a slight turn and needs more room on the right. The little splash in the water from the water droplet gives more sense of motion to the photo.

Well done!!

Very nice pose here Bob, love the colors and the blurred wingtips. It feels a bit tight to me, perhaps a bit more roon all around. Also visible, a small halo along the legs and bottom of the bird, easily fixed. Very nice capture still, wish I had gotten one this nice when I was down there.

sweet pose you got here, Bob. really like this, as well as your overall comp. color looks a lot brighter in the larger version--are they saved in different color spaces/processed differently? do you know what % of original this is? the head doesn't have quite as much detail as I'd hope for, perhaps due to the crop?

What a lovely posture for the R. Spoonbill. You captured it at the right moment. This is such a large bird that I would have increased the DOF. Parts of the bird seem a bit soft. I'm curious....what caused the 'plop' of water to the my right of the bird?

Love the wing positons, the stance, and the background. Very nice, and I realize that some spoons are more colorful than others depending on diet, but this seems a bit over saturated. Is it?

Thanks for the C & C. As I mentioned in post, I probably cropped too tight. 1:1 which contributes to the softness and shot at F 5.6. The colors are what they were in breeding plumage. I was in Texas in January and the spoons were much lighter in color. Is this contributed to diet, location or mating season? Don't really know what contributed to plop in water- was not close enough to bird. Color should be the same between small and large file- same processing used. Hope that answers some of your questions. I am still learning wildlife photography after shooting Landscape for 10 + years.

Absolutely stunning Bob! I've only ever seen one other image of a Rosette Spoonbill with a full wingspread by Arthur Morris, and much as I loved that one I have to say this image of yours sets Mr. Morris's at second place on my favourites list ;^)

Exquisite colours and detail, extremely well done :^)

Great pose here Bob, I would have left a little more room around the bird and increased my iso and depth of field some here.

Beautiful plumage color here Bob, I think the slight wing-tip movement adds a bit more drama to the already beautiful setting. I agree that the crop seems a little tight. Sweet Photo Bob

Ken Archer

Great wingspread n colors here!
Jagdeep Rajput

Nice pose. Big bird to try and image in this head on position. Symmetry of the wing is pleasing. More DOF might have helped some, but really quite nice just as is. I love the intensity of the colors at this time of year.

What a super gorgeous pose. Light looks grea tas well but Ifeel the image may be a little over saturated as well as a little too centered. i feel it's a great image and well worth working out the nits..

this is quite unique. Beautiful colors and a striking pose.

Awesome wing position and colors Bob. I like the water drop in the lake. Could use a little more room on the sides for my tastes and possibly a little more room on top. (lengthened and widened). Beautiful image Bob.

Bob,

You did catch a great pose, I especially like the position of the wings. There are several things that could have improved this image both in the field and during post processing. If you had increased your ISO and used more depth of field the head and tip of the long bill may have been sharper. In postprocessing the thin halo I can see around some parts of the spoonbill could be avoided by careful masking and selectively sharpening the bird. The pinks of the feathers do seem slightly over saturated to my eye and have a cool tone to them and with the exception of the lightest whites on the shoulder of the bird the image seems slightly dark. You don't mention if you used any positive ev compensation but I may have tried a step towards the positive and then tried to keep the lighest whites under control in post. I think the white balance is slighty off because of the cool tones in the pinks, I would try to warm those up a small amount. Also, there is far less detail in the feathers in the larger version than I would have expected, at ISO 250 I would expect to see more. If you used noise reduction on this image I would try to reduce it.