Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
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Image Description
During our previous trip to Lake Magadi, we went to the shore of nearby Lake Natron one morning to photograph flamingos at sunrise. Just before sunrise, the sky and water turned a soft pink - very fitting for the flamingos!
Lake Natron - Kenya
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Wow Ingrid! The colors of the sunrise perfectly match the colors of the flamingos. What a beautiful pastel orange/pink. The OOF distant mountains are wonderfully soft and just shadows of themselves and the striation of clouds in the sky match the colors of the mountains.
But with all that said, it’s those three flamingos in perfect symmetry flying through the middle of the frame with no distractions behind them. The soft light is really working for you here and your composition is perfectly balanced. All things fell into place for this once in a lifetime image, Ingrid.
I have just a couple of very, very small nits that I’m embarrassed to even mention because this image is so good. In the ULC of the sky there is either a dust spot or smudge of some kind just below the little bit of cloud poking in from the side. Even if it’s cloud, I would remove it. I’m also not that keen on those two trees. This last one is not something you’d be able to fix but on the right side of the frame there is open water before you have the grouping of the Flamingos. On the left side they pull you out of the frame. In a perfect world of a perfect image I would want some separation between the edge of the frame and flamingos just like on the right side. Like I said, I’m almost embarrassed to mention these because this image is a grand slam homerun on every level. Congratulations Ingrid!!! This ought to be entered into a photo contest somewhere.
Wow, thank you David, for taking the time to write all that down, and for your appreciation! The trees, yes, they were there, and I’m not going to take them out. I doubted about the ‘dust spot’ so I looked back at my large file where it’s clearly visible it’s a lighter shade small cloud. Had there been any doubt about what it was, I would have cropped it out after your advice. As it is, I choose to leave it in, but I do accept that one little cloud might disturb a little… or it might just say “Hi, I’m here too!” to anyone who’s looking at it. I’m hoping for the latter 
Thanks so much again!
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I too had an Initial Reaction to the color. There’s a nice variation of peach and pink going on that matches the birds well, as David notes. The soft pastel of the light exudes a feeling of peace for me. It makes me feel how tranquil the cool of morning can be, before the heat of the day really gets going. (Or, vice versa for the end of the day.) I also agree that the three flying birds add a lot to the image.
I do wish the three birds weren’t so close to the edge of the frame. Was there any more of the lake below to have? If not, you could run with David’s idea about bird symmetry and crop in from the right and top; there would be more symmetry for the distant birds and the flying birds would move slightly more central.
I do wish it was posted larger. I suspect the added detail would be even more enjoyable. I also find the large watermark a bit distracting. (Have you had issues with your images being stolen? I haven’t battled that, but I sure it would be annoying if it happened.)
Ingrid, this is a great photo and I particularly like the 3 flamingoes and two trees. I do find the sky a bit repetitive and the photo may also look wonderful in an ultrawide format, 65 by 24 or 15 by 9. I also see a completely new photo - being a vertical crop of just wider than the three flamingoes and a little higher than the two trees.
Nicely timed
My attention was first attracted by the colors in the sky, then I noticed the three flamingos flying in the lower part… It is a very delicate and subtle image, I find it splendid.
Thank you all! I am going to reply more extensively and try a small crop based on your comments but I can’t right now. Will get back to you some time next week! Thanks again and have a great weekend!
