Critique Style: Initial Reaction
Please share your first response before reading the hidden notes below. The photographer is looking for an unbiased initial impression.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
Questions for Viewers
This image was taken in San Diego this past winter on January 2nd when the Pelican are in breeding plumage. I arrived early, walked around looking for the best angled light and took a couple thousand images of the pelicans and the Double crested cormorants that were laying eggs on the cliffs.
I had pretty much had enough but before leaving I thought I would do some longer exposure images on the some of the birds in flight. My go to as of late seems to be 1/20th to 1/30th of a second while panning on the the bird. This is NOT ICM but rather a long exposure on things that are moving quickly. That’s where the blur comes from.
While I was looking through my viewfinder at the images, I noticed that there was a kayak with two people on it in the image. It may actually only be one kayaker but it’s hard to tell. Dang that motion blur. 
I came away with what I thought were several keepers for the day for the long exposure as well as the normal way of photographing birds in flight. Hope you like this one. I know in advance these are not for everyone so you won’t hurt my feelings with a critique saying you don’t get it. No worries. All good.
Technical Details
Camera: Z9
Lens: 180-600mm
Focal length: 600mm
Shutter speed: 1/13th
Aperture: f/18
ISO: 50
Flash: none
Feedback Requested
I’d like to know if the kayak helps or hurts the image and I’d like to know how you feel about the amount of blur.
Great idea nice execution. The crop with the two objects works very nicely from a reasonable viewing distance - like a lot of abstracts you see more from further away.
I looked at isolating the bird but it doesn’t really work for me - Ive seen images with a bit less blur which works better.
The paddles are a bit burnt out but again doesn’t matter
Really conveys the narrative of the scene - and the action and interaction
Love it!
A really impressionistic motion saturated image, David. Are you sure that’s not a dragonfly instead of a kayak? This image really does a great job of conveying motion in the bird the kayak and even the water. Very well conceived and executed.
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Is a very interesting image from a standpoint of abstraction. It’s hard to tell what you’re looking at, but you could look at it closely and see that there are two kayaks or is a double kayak with two people in it and the bird is really hard to tell if it’s a bird. Could be a dolphin? In any case you abstraction is pleasing and other than playing around with color tonality I’m not sure that you can really do anything to it. That would make it better.
By the way, I’ve been looking at it without my reading glasses, which makes it even more out of focus and it’s very difficult to determine whether it’s a bird or something else.. if I look at it with my reading glasses on, I could make out the fact that it’s appears to be a bird.
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment on this image @David_Schoen, @Dennis_Plank, @Huw_Thomas. I certainly appreciate it.
Dave,
Dang, way late to the party here, but had to comment!
Way Cool! I love the juxtaposition between the two elements. I think even without your description I can figure out what’s what - although the pelican is much less obvious.
Personally, I think the presents of the kayak is a great bonus! It actually creates a picture story, causes the viewer to ask questions and wonder what’s going on. I’m not sure how much this is cropped, but the end result could be used as a Rule of Thirds demo in a composition class!. Also, I like the brighter processing.
Well done Dave!
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