A pond at the end of the street where I grew up. It was called “mud pond” back then. The pond was so polluted with trash old washing machines you name it. It was cleaned-up by an environment group 10 years ago. Boy was I surprised to see a Great Egret grabbing dragonflies around a layer of lily pads and beautiful purple reflections from colorful weeds. I felt I was in a Monet painting and yet it was mud pond now called Long Pond.
Specific Feedback Requested
… any technical advise or composition is appreciated
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D500
Lens 500mm f/5.6
Sec: 1/1250 - setting for birds
F11
ISO 1200
manual
photoartistnorma
1 Like
Wonderful opportunity, but there is a lot going on that I find a bit distracting. It needs some CW rotation to level the lines in the water, most obvious at about the bird’s feet. The other things you couldn’t really control are the rather abrupt transition from the surface detail of the FG water to the midground is visually confusing, and then again the same between it and the blue water at the top, which seems to have more wind disturbance.
Thank you Diane, I will try the CW rotation. If you could have seen what this looked like before it is amazing the transformation. I was hoping I could do it some justice.
Norma, this is a beautiful view, with the Egret showing well mixed with the lily blooms and the reflections of what I’m guessing is likely to be Purple Loostrife (a notoriously good looking invasive…). For some of the dragonflies and damselflies, the water quality doesn’t have to be of very good. If there enough small critters, then the birds will come to eat. My next guess is that the water quality has good to at least decent. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten lots of good pictures from a stormwater control pond with birds, frogs, turtles, dragonflies and damselflies. They can be quite productive. BTW, if you rotate this, the bird will look like it’s falling on its face. The lines across the water are clearly edges of plants and reflections, neither of which needs to be level.
Mark thank you so much. Sometimes doing too much is just counter productive and in this case I believe there is just too much going on. I try very hard to keep the horizon line level when photographing. . . alway appreciate your critiques.
