A stunning profile of a great blue heron and its bonus reflection. Lovely, natural colors.
I'm very familiar with this species, though in my corner of the planet they are found as often in cow pastures (catching rodents the cattle stir up) as in ponds. In their water setting, they can be motionless for so long, I get bored and move on 😁
I have a different take. For me, an image is an image, and how it ends up is far more important than how it got there. Filters are just one more tool in the toolbox, no different than any other. They can be used creatively, or plain vanilla out of the box. They can be used to create rather terrible eye-scratching images, or beautiful ones or impactful ones or just fun ones. I use filters of many kinds and have a couple of favorites in the NIK set that are part of my normal workflow. It takes skill and effort to use them well, and they usually work best for me if carefully applied in separate layers, using brushes and masks to direct the effect precisely, like any other adjustment in PS or similar. I was recently thrilled to be able to resurrect a long-discontinued Topaz filter because it creates an effect I can't exactly emulate in PS alone.
AI is going to be the same - it will have effective and worrisome uses. My entry this week has two corners that are filled in by the AI in Photoshop Beta, allowing me to finally, after years of aggravation, straighten this darned image the way I wanted. AI was not able to properly build the bottom half of the back tire though. I had to paint it in, along with the shadows. I have had my struggles with AI experiments- rabbits with 3 ears, trees with limbs sticking out the bottom instead of the top. But I know someone who's using it to make amazing backgrounds for his dramatic digital paintings of medieval knights. I love that we have a wide variety of tools to do creative stuff with the pixels we collect, and as long as I don't tell tall tales about what I'm doing, I won't feel bad about using them.
I like the idea ... I like the picture .. but for some reason that window bothers me .. I think I'd use the perspective tool and square it up .... In fact I tried and I do like it better squared up!!! ..... but then ...
WhyNot
Your title told me the story. Pete's and Minnie's critiques gave me more information on what to appreciate about the composition and content. It appears you had little time to consider the possibilities (that everything came together somewhat spontaneously). I'm wondering whether your shot is a result of instinct that it would be successful, or did you actually have to wait a long time for the "decisive" moment, or did you determine after the fact that you had something good?
How does one critique a picture this good?? ..... I won't I like playing with heron and there are a few I know along the local Tennessee River and I've many shots of them but this would be one of the better ones if I had taken it ... NIce ... (Well is that word allowed here?)
WhyNot
I love your composition! I feel the massive size of the cliff, partly due to the "little people," but also the amount of space in the frame you devoted to the rocks and their apparent reach-out-and-touch proximity and that the rocks extend beyond the top of the frame. I get a sense of the height from the countryside far below. I also love the contrast between lush greenery and cliffside.
The waterfall is lagniappe 😀
Great title, fantastic pov. A frail gentleman wanting to get it right, and the burly son or grandson becoming impatient to leave (his chair is pulled back from the table). The line of windows is a terrific setting, the black and white processing highly engaging. I rarely take photos of people, but I love, love, love this one!
All together now: Sense. Of. Place.
Marvelous Minnie does it again! 😍
Thank you Chris! I appreciate your taking the time to puzzle through it. More than fuzzy, it has a Topaz filter effect. Stella has her toys and I have mine, lol.
Thanks so much, Jim. Having a bit of fun with Topaz is better (sometimes) than sangria and tacos for dinner!
Absolute boredom...you do know your felines, Paula! I will admit - out of Stella's hearing - that for me, she is what makes this image. Thanks for your comments!
Thanks so much. Funny you should mention that theme. I took this photo for Facebook's Create 52. The week's theme was "Hobby." I was going to go with "Hobby - walking around with my camera." But I had to rethink sharing a shot of my shoes "on location" when another member posted a gorgeous set along the same idea. Then I hit on the idea of including my shadow or reflection, and then once I got on the computer, I came up with three playfully processed results.
Mike, your explanation of your discomfort is the most clear and understandable to me of most any I've heard relating to the dislike of certain filters in heavily processed images. I am very appreciative of your time and pov.
I have no art history background. I "took pictures" when a teen, acquired my first film SLR when in my '30's, took a year of black and white film photography at a community college when I was 40. I bought a dslr when I was 55. I discovered playful processing (in no small part thanks to MinnieV) when I was 60. It's all joy to me!
LOL, thank you! I'm reminded of the "controversy" over my leaning lamp in one of my early postings to this forum. If squaring up the image works for you, then I'm all in. Many thanks for your time and efforts!
Really like this image partly because it is nicely arranged with the older gentleman getting top billing with a full view, partly because it is interestingly processed, partly because we get to make up our own story and stories is much of what I find interesting in photographs. The older fellow is carefully considering the tip while his son or buddy is staring off into the distance as if used to waiting and possibly as bored as Linda's cat. The details highlighted by the extra contrast are interesting and take us from checking out his crossed feet in their sneakers to the half empty water glass to the items on the other side of the windows. The angle invites us into their world (or table) so we are a part of the transaction. Well done.
Insane Mike, a sinkhole in a Tuba 😎. Now seriously, really a fantastic top recording moment.
Lou
Well shot Chris, the different tracks and the bank give meaning to the moment.
Lou
Pete's analysis of the positioning of the figures and the bench is right on. I didn't see this. Yet another example of the value in breaking the rules. This doesn't mean that the rules are wrong, they simply need to be understood and not applied or broken without purpose.
It's the kind of image that invites an "Add a caption" competition. There are many humorous possibilities.
Great capture Chris and congrats on the crop.
Linda, thanks for your response to my response (this could go on forever). Next week I'll post an impressionistic photo of mine. I'm not saying I'm right about this, it's a personal response in an unresolved playpen area of my head. If anyone else has views on this, I'd welcome them.
I see what Jim and Simplejoy are getting at. It doesn't bother me too much though and I don't mind the line it gives from the corner to the group of cows above it. I'm also happy to have the larger bit of cow which then tapers down to the smaller cows to the rear as this adds distance in a landscape where fore to distance is important.
SimpleJoy, I nearly fell off my chair laughing with you at your suggestion.
Gotta love Minniev's use of the word "palette" here. An artist's palette, complete with thumb through the traditional hole, is precisely what I thought when I saw it. An artist palette for a cubist? Now I can't scrub that idea from my head as I look again.
It's appealing in an unusual way. The photographer's selection draws our attention to an odd lot of angles that we might otherwise have driven past. I think I have said something like this before. A photo collection of roofs and bits of structures with odd angles could be good with a subject like this. I'd do them all the same size, frame them all the same way and hang them reasonably close together.
The reflection is ridiculously perfect. It may or may not be possible to add little more to the top so it includes the outline of the bank that shows in the reflection? I'm sure that you have considered this already before deciding on the final framing. There is a wealth of fine detail here to enjoy in the plumage, eye and along the bill. The enclosed bell shape made by the chest/beak/legs and beak is pleasing.
The lighting is effective. The light and dark areas retain detail. The stripes in the plumage running down from the back and again around the lower chest to the legs also get a repetition in the stripes on the beak and it all helps bring the image together.
I can only offer sympathy re the lenses. I'd like to do more bird photography too. I'm resigned to never having the lenses I might need for this and a deep suspicion that even if I had them I would never be satisfied.