CCC Forum

Hi Steve Ive just had a look and I must say some impressive images.

Thanks for sharing

I agree with Bett, even there are a few many images of ducks for my liking.

For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with my views on ducks, which date to a presentation I gave at the club a while back, here ia a reprise of a couple of posts on the subject.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2421

Geese are OK. Apparently.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2423&p=11336&hilit=duck#p11336

SteveBudd wrote:Oh dear...

Indeed.

So I cannot tell you just how much stick I got for this image in last season's Nature competition. My protestations that it is a Grebe were ignored.

Although the judge did give it a certificate (which is how my authorship was revealed), he wanted a tighter crop. Which is not an unreasonable comment for a nature shot. For me, what lifts it above the standard "duck" photo (if only slightly) are the reflection and the effect created by the ripples.

SteveBudd wrote:Can't say a 'tighter crop' is necessary for your shot. For sure, the moment could have resulted in a number of different images, from the one illustrated, right down to a head only portrait, depending on lens reach and/or crop options.

The grebe was some distance away. This is a crop from a shot taken with a 100-400 lens + 1.4 converter mounted on an APS-C 16 MP camera and zoomed in as far as it would go, so further crop options are limited. Nature tends to be judged more on documentary aspects than purely aesthetic, hence the judge's comments. On that criterion, your first duck shot could possibly be criticised for not showing the entire bird. For me, the crop on my image is right and I was pleased with the print which is what really matters. It is a bonus if a judge likes the end result and it certainly looks much better as a print than as a low resolution JPEG.

SteveBudd wrote:As for the stick you rec'd - who was it that lifted the lid on Pandora's Box lol?

It is more of a standing joke within the club and the stick was in jest. I hope.

SteveBudd wrote:Just joshin' old bean - no need to defend your Grebe shot (which is excellent btw); I was actually defending it in the face of the judge's comment about going tighter and I understand what you achieved was at the edge of your rig's reach and works just fine.

I was not aware of defending anything, rather I thought I was giving a bit of background info.

Anyway, I am glad that you liked the shot. Given everything that is going on in it, I would not have changed the crop even if I had taken it with a gigapixel übercamera (constructed from unadulterated 100% pure unobtanium) which allowed infinite options.

As an aside, a friend had a MTO 1100 f/10.5 mirror lens on his stall at this year's Photographica and I had a play with it. Were I seriously into birding and wanted something longer than I currently have (which is a bit on the short side for that type of work), I would have bought it. Mounted on a crop sensor camera, I was taking pictures of people's pimples from the other side of the hall.