When I went to the National Bison Range, I had my trailer at Jocko Hollow RV Park in Arlee. It’s right on the Jocko river (no more than 20 feet from the back of the trailer). On my second afternoon there, I had stepped outside and heard birds in the river. When I looked, there were two American Dippers (I believe juveniles from the bright beaks). They hung around and foraged among the rocks for quite some time, completely ignoring me while I got my camera and laid down as low as I could get and fired away.
Interestingly, when I planned this trip I was thinking about finding a good river and staking it out for Dippers-never thinking I’d get the chance that close to camp.
I have two series of one extracting Caddis Fly larvae from their cases (see the right side of the rock for what they look like). Unfortunately, they all have an extremely bright out of focus rock immediately in front of the Dipper. I’ll probably try to work a couple of those and post them for interest if nothing else.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I added a touch of canvas on the right side when I cropped this.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I darkened the rock considerably, the rest of the background just a touch and brought up the Dipper and Caddis Fly cases.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, hand held lying on the ground, f/8, 1/500, iso 2000, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Noise reduction with Neat Image. Plumage enhancement with Topaz Detail. I also removed the catchlight from the water reflection as it looked really weird. Cropped to 4329x2966 before resizing for the web. Taken at 1:41 pm on September 12th under mostly cloudy skies.
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You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Nice job in bringing out the detail in the dipper. The setting seems pretty much perfect for a dipper.
These birds are just so fun to watch. Your knowledge of their habitat and feeding is interesting and helpful. I’d be tempted to darken the rock even further, especially where he’s standing it’s still kinda bright. Would his legs benefit from some burning too? Plumage looks great in regards to details.
Here’s a repost taking the comments of @Jim_McGovern into account. I do think it’s an improvement.
I darkened the rock by nearly a stop and burned the legs a bit.
Now, I think the Dipper really stands out with fewer luminance distractions…I think this is much better. Thanks for the repost!
I like the second image the best, Dennis. I think it improved. So glad that you stepped out and heard them. You capture nice details in the feathers, and I love the slight head turn.
The repost is much better, Dennis - in the original, the dipper is kind of lost against the background and the bright rock. Excellent head turn, and the setting with the running water and larvae provides a nice picture of the habitat. I do, however, find the head/eye just a tad soft in the full size image.
Thanks, Govind. I think I reprocessed the wrong version. The double catchlight in the eye somehow found its way back in and makes the eye appear unfocused. I’ll have to go back and reprocess the correct file.
A nice capture of one of these interesting birds, Dennis. Good detail on the bird and you did a good job in toning down the rock. I think I like the last version best and the double catch light doesn’t bother me. The sharpness looks good in the small version but it seems just a bit soft in the large view. I think I would add just a bit of sharpening to bring out the detail in the feathers. I just recently had a similar opportunity to shoot a series of photos of a pair of these American Dippers and will be posting them soon. One thing I have noticed is that their legs are quite shiny and will always look overexposed even though the exposure on all the rest of the bird is perfect.
Sometimes you simply need a bit of luck ! Lovely shot, and a nice dipper. The second image appeals the most to me. Well shot and processed! Cheers, Hans
