Cattails and a Redwing Blackbird

Image Description

Imagine that you are positioned at the edge of a cattail marsh in early March with the bright morning sun breaking over the horizon. A thin layer of ice that covers the open water in the marsh reflects the color of the clear blue sky. And a male redwing blackbird sings from within a sea of cattail seedheads left over from the previous winter.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I liked how the warm tones of the vegetation worked with the sky blue tones of the ice. The temperature of the light suggests warmth, but actually it was about 19 degrees in the sun. I also liked the cattails with those in the plane of focus showing lots of texture with the rest softened with a limited depth of field.

Technical Details

Z9 600mm f4 + 1.4x teleconverter (1/640 sec at f6.3, ISO=1600). Topaz DeNoise AI, slight crop for comp, levels.

2 Likes

@Jim_Zablotny - a lovely scene with the story told with the environment and the singing Red Wing. I can hear the sound as I view your image. Nicely done.

This is beautiful! I love the bluish ice and the complimentary rushes. This scene evokes exactly what you described.

Really nice Jim. Love all the repeating cattails with the bird nicely positioned. Nice light too. Well done.

Lovely scene. The temperature contrast really works here. I agree with Keith, you can imagine the song (probably my favorite bird call) in this image. Well captured.

Lovely shot, and the colors are very nice - I love the way you included the environment here ! Well done, Cheers, Hans

Thank you @Keith_Bauer , @Allen_Brooks , @Hans_Overduin , @Allen_Sparks , and @Robena.Sirett for critiques. It has been an unusual very warm winter with a spring season that is more like a typical Michigan January. …Jim

An excellent “spring” image, Jim. We finally got a mild day today, so our spring is on its way, though we get it much earlier than you do. I love the feeling of depth in this image from the cattails going out of focus to the background. To emphasize that feeling even more, you might think about removing the one foreground oof cattail just to the right of center on the bottom.

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How did I miss this? Wouldn’t have seen it if it hadn’t gotten an EP – congratulations! Much deserved! Wonderful setting and composition with perfect DOF!!

I agree with @Dennis_Plank that the OOF one if the FG might be removable. Would be interesting to see…

1 Like