I was at Sweetwater Park in Tucson and found a few ducks there today, glad they are starting to come back. This American Coot came out of the water and walking around grooming himself. I sat on the ground about 30 feet away and slid closer and closer to maybe about 20 feet away, although I am not great with distances. Something in the air above spooked not only this coot but the ones in the water near the shore. He was moving fast and started the flight as I snapped the photo, but still had one foot barely on the ground. These birds are fast when they want to move.
Type of Critique Requested
- Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
- Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
- Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
There was a lot of room on the right side which I cropped down from the upper right corner. However, it was hard keeping up with this bird, so the left edge had very little room left. I expanded the canvas and used PS content aware. That worked to a point but needed to use the healing brush to fix it a little bit. I tell you this to see if any more needs to be fixed on the left side.
Technical Details
R6m2 RF 100-500 w/1.4x Extender. 700mm f/16 1/1600 ISO 1600. I used Photo AI, darken the background, and used a curves contrast adjustment on the subject.