Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
I like this image and feel this image can work, but wondering about coloring and general impressions.
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Technical Details
ISO 50, 500mm, F/11, 1/20 sec Nikon Z6ii
Specific Feedback
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
I really like this image David. It tells the story of the massive flocks of snow geese we often see in the colder months. I like the layering of the image with the roosting geese getting my attention first and then the ones in flight providing additional strong interest up above. Colors look fine to me. Well done.
Welcome to NPN and the Avian forum, David. This is a really interesting image. The combination of the geese still on the ground with the ones in the air makes for an unusual composition. It feels a little incongruous because non of the birds on the ground seem to be taking off and the ones in the sky don’t seem to be lighted the same as the ones on the ground, so it feels like a composite (I haven’t read your description yet). Whether or not it’s a composite, I’d be tempted to increase the brightness of the flying birds to make them blend better with the flock on the ground.
Welcome, David. You’ve got a very interesting image here. It may not be the case but the image appears to need a CCW rotation as I feel like the image is sloping down from left to right. It’s slight but it’s the first thing I noticed. I LOVE that one geese, dead center of the frame, that is standing and looking right at you. None of the other geese seems to care but this one is eyeing you. I think it adds impact to the scene and tells a little bit of a story. Really good of you to get all of that flying action above and virtually no movement in any of the foreground birds for what must have been a long exposure (well, at least a 1/4 second or more). Take care of the rotation and I think you have a winning combination here and very unusual as well. Creative for sure. Well done.
Dennis, I appreciate your comments. It is tricky with the birds on the ground and the ones taking off. They are the same color, but the background as you have noticed is much darker with the dark trees behind the birds giving it a darker appearance. I will play with your suggestion to see what I can get.
David, Thank you so much for your comments. I did notice the slight tilt as soon as I posted it. I plan to correct it. My eye was drawn to that one goose from the very beginning. I feel it makes the image so much more interesting. Exposure was 1/20th on a 500mm.
My eyes went first to all the movement in the top of the frame, before settling on the chap looking (almost) right at you! I like the contrast of all that movement and then the sudden stillness.
(I’m not from the US, so had to find out what Aflac referred to - thought it was some duck species I’d missed somehow!)
Edit, after reading comments & blurred text: along with the rotation, I’d consider centring the FG duck a little. I also thought this might be a composite, amazing job capturing this!
