Impending choice

A lone wild burro stands impassively on what has become an island. Because of the dam and how water is used seasonally from Lake Pleasant, what is dry land one day becomes water filled the next and this burro will have to swim or starve. Looks as if it’s already been wading a bit.

Specific Feedback Requested

I’m not in love with the processing, but it’s as good as I could do for the moment. Should I clone out his uh, leavings? lol

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Handheld in the boat

image

Lr processed - no crop, wb adjustment, select subject mask and inverted to improve the look of the sky. Increased exposure, whites, shadows, texture and a bit of clarity. Sharpened a bit. Brush to bring up the face more clearly and especially the eye. This is not a crop.

@the.wire.smith

Nice!! I’ve just done a little with these guys and the WB was giving me fits, even with the camera set to Daylight and the light being the same, with just thin scattered high clouds. Maybe a bit cooler WB??

I’d probably remove the road apples but they do provide a sort of balance… :upside_down_face:

I like it as is without any cloning. It represents the environment in which he lives. (and quite well, I think).

Thanks @Diane_Miller & @Jim_Gavin - I’ll mess with it again today. The white balance is giving me fits, too. And the poo…it’s all over with these guys, but probably isn’t helping this image as much as it’s funny. Hm…

He looks pretty well fed at this point, Kris. I’m not sure what the issue is with white balance. it looks fine on my screen-the blue in the sky is usually a dead giveaway if it’s off much. I’m unsure why you’re worried about the camera white balance setting. If I understand correctly, that only affects your file if you’re saving jpegs. It doesn’t play into the RAW file.

The road apples are fine where they are as far as I’m concerned.

A very good image.

Kris, I love donkeys, and you did a fine job capturing this one. I wouldn’t change a thing. I like the way you are shooting upward at him, and so the sky is making for a nice BG for him.