Sunrise at Sacramento NWR & Repost

In the spirit of Keith’s recent article, here’s a goosescape from my trip to California last month.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Anything. I tried taming the sun a bit using a highlights adjustment and painting over the brightest part with a yellow brush (picked up from the band in the middle) at 12% opacity. The foreground was pulled up by about 1 2/3 stops in post.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Anything. I’m not sure about the lone goose on the far left.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

7DII, Sigma 150-600 @ 187 mm, beanbag on car window, f/8, 1/1600, iso 2000 (I know these are odd setting for landscape, but I was set up for birds), manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Noise reduction with Neat Image. Cropped and straightened to 5148x3360 pixels including a very small canvas addition on the left. Other adjustments as noted above. Taken at 7:03 am on February 7th.

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Nice sunrise colors and the banding in the sun is interesting. For me having the geese in the shot conveys more of the mood of early morning than if they were absent-you can almost hear them honking. You have some nice foreground layering. I’m okay with the leading goose; seems to give a bit of balance to the composition. Well done.

Dennis. Thanks for the nod in posting this. Very nice story and image. I like everything about it except for the goose on the left edge. Amazing how something that small in the image commands that much visual mass.

I think the sun looks just fine.

Maybe we’ll have a new trend in this style of images :grinning:

Beautifully captured! I can’t decide on the goose on the left, but I THINK I would slightly prefer it not to be there. A minor nit in a fabulous image!

Without the pesky goose on the left.

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This works much better compositionally. Excellent color and a beautiful image.