From my paddling session on Horn lake in July - another whiteface gives me a great pose and perch. IRL it’s about 1 inch long. I noticed it sitting here and hoped it would either stay or come back - it stayed.
Specific Feedback Requested
I could have cloned away the bit of grass on the left, but decided I liked it and otherwise it just seemed too clean. Thoughts?
Technical Details
Handheld in the kayak, but I got it stuck on some waterlily rhizome masses for extra stability
Initial RAW work in Lr including a slight reduction in exposure, blacks and highlights and the usual boost for whites and shadows. A biggish crop. Topaz for sharpening. Photoshop for some luminosity masking to further separate this little guy from the background.
Kris, you did a fine job capturing this little guy from a boat. Nice and sharp. I actually like the blade of grass in the image, it just helps show his environment.
Nice one. As @Shirley_Freeman noted, nice and sharp. I’m indifferent about the grass; it could stay or go as far as I’m concerned. I noticed it, but it isn’t a distraction for me.
Nice catch and an attractive perch and environment!! The grass works for me as it echoes the perch. I might have cropped or burned the brighter thing on the right.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman. @terryb and @Diane_Miller - I’m glad the grass isn’t a deal breaker. I did burn the living crap out of the light plant on the right. Any more it got muddy and goopy and gross. Maybe a crop would be better.
This is great! And, to think you shot it in your kayak!..On top of lily pads!
I don’t mind the grass. I wouldn’t crop the lighter plant on the right, but I might consider a big Marquee down that side and then Edit>Transform>Distort to drag the greenery over the lighter part and carefully erase any join line.
Oooh @glennie - that’s an idea I’ll have to try when I get back home tonight. I’ve never used this technique before, but the background might just allow it. I had tried some color cloning, but it looked too weird so I gave it up.
I wasn’t really on lily pads although a big mass of them can hold you steadier than open water. Now and then we get the rhizome mass disconnected from the bottom and it floats. A big rhizome looks like a giant corn cob stripped of its kernels. Or some rotting animal limb or something and they can be startling to see if you don’t know what they are. I’ll try to find a picture. Sometimes that, combined with a stump or other debris, forms a sort of mushy floating root ball and they can be anywhere from just a couple feet across to ten feet. That’s what I was lodged on. I couldn’t have stood on it, but the boat could get stuck no problem. It’s sort of hard to explain.
Ok, here’s what I mean - (not my pic, but one I found on the web)
If you can picture a 12-foot red kayak in the distance on the right, that’s where I took the shot above. This was a little earlier and I did the same thing, but just in the leaves themselves and that held me pretty well.
