Had some wonderful opportunities with stilts last summer. After reading @Keith_Bauer’s article about including environment in photos, I thought I’d give this one a whirl. Bit different for me. Not a very clean frame, but I like this because it shows where stilts live and forage. There also happened to be copious amounts of buttercups blooming, which I thought helped! Now that I’ve moved across the country, it falls to @Allen_Sparks to watch over my stilts!
In post, I just cropped in a touch from the top, set white and black points, burned a couple bright spots, and ran just a little bit of NR on the background. After adding contrast with the white and black points, it didn’t look like it needed any sharpening. All C&C welcome.
Techs:
D850
700mm, this was prob. shot from a tripod
1/2500
f/7.1
ISO 500
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
@feelingruby
Hi Lyle: I think this is a lovely frame exemplifying the concepts I was advocating in my recent article. You said it is “not a very clean frame”… I think the problem with a lot of what we see today is not only a push to make it clean but push even beyond to make it sterile. So, for me this is nicely captured.
Anyone who knows my history at NPN is well aware of my push for including environment in nature photos, and searches in the archived articles will bring up a lot of material on the subject. As Keith says we continue to see an abundance of sterile subjects and not a lot of good environmental shots. But photographers must take care not to confuse clutter with environment! I believe strongly that it is more difficult to create good environmental images than to shoot clean settings (or worth, just clone out stuff to make it clean).
This is a decent example of a good environmental image. I’d prefer not having all the yellow flowers and the out of focus bits obscuring part of the stilt. But the low shooting angle is excellent and brings the viewer into the environment. Excellent detail on the stilt and the exposure is handled well.
I really like this shot, Lyle. The inclusion of the surrounding makes up for the slight foreground overlap for me. The exposure is excellent, details are great on the bird and I think the yellow flowers really livens it up. Nice composition of the background also. The large version has a great sense of presence, like you were lying right there in the grasses next to it!
Really excellent. I agree with all the above comments. I think you’ve done a good job to make this unexceptional image. What really stands out to me is the black-and-white bird against the green environment.
